Raintree
Issue 9 • October-November-December 2010
Illustration by Roma Singh, IDC
PERSPECTIVES
Knifing the Silence
In our current educational scenario, the lines delin-
eating students and teachers are blurring. They
wear a variety of hats as they go about living life,
donning roles which aren’t always defined. Students
Emotional direction has radically
changed ways. what students
and teacher offer each other
here has been affected by
the fact that we are mentally,
culturally and even genetically
world apart from our ancestors
Inside
Perspectives - Student Speak 2
Perspectives - Faculty Speak 6
opinion - our Chinese wall 8
opinion - PG 10
opinion - UG 11
Introduction by BHAVINI PANT, Campus Resident
who come to IIT have had multiple exposures, inspir-
ing protean expectations from the institute and its
faculty. Meanwhile, the faculty, too has undergone
several evolutions. They have witnessed and often
participated in different learning cultures and prac-
tises around the world, and have distilled them for the
atmosphere here. They have seen the extent to which
teaching and learning can interchange and pervade
spaces beyond the classroom.
A case in point is Teaching Assistants. The roles are
reversed for students, who “go over to the other side”,
but also for professors – the equation they have with
students in this scenario undergoes a slight shift.
Random meanderings - 20 Saal Baad 13
Reader’s Contribution - Lambs or Lions 14
Upside of Down 16
opinion - Swinging the Tightrope 19
Personality 22
Notes from the campus
Illustration by Piyush Udai
Areca catechu
Y ou’ll be hard put to find a tree more slender, or one
with sparser foliage, than this one. Growing to a
height of 30 metres without a single branch put out
along the way, on top it sports just a small canopy of
fronds, giving it the appearance of a comically tall and
quite ineffective sun umbrella. The nut of the tree is
amongst the most widely chewed in the country, either
as a prime ingredient of an after-dinner paan or on its
own as a mild stimulant … we’re talking, of course, of
the supari, or the betel-nut tree. Since it belongs to the
palm family, its distribution is mainly coastal and peri-
coastal, and when cultivated in orchards its slim, tall, bare
trunks make an arresting sight, like an array of columns
propping up the roof of some gigantic hall. Like other
palms, it is put to diverse uses: the wood, harder than it
appears to be, is good for small artifacts and the fronds
are good for thatching. On campus there are several to be
seen, including a small row of them in various stages of
growth just by the Main building, in the corner of the lawn
fronting the Pc Saxena Auditorium (our erstwhile “LT”).
In the same breath, heirarchies positioning students
and teachers remain as inflexible and static as ever.
There may not be a blackboard and chalk anymore,
but the teacher stands and speaks and the student
sits and receives. The divisions, with time, seem to be
growing stronger and deeper as both groups enter
into a relationship with each other. Yet they remain
enclosed within their predefined worlds.
Traditional education in our country was based on the
gurukul system, in which students and teachers lived
in close proximity and learned the lessons of life from
(contd. overleaf)
News 24
Events 25
Appointments and Retirements 26
Fiction - Braess Paradox 27
Comic Strip 28
Raintree October-November-December 2010
PERSPECTIVES
Knifing the Silence
a scientific, physical, spiritual and emotional perspec-
tive. IIT is also a residential insititute of learning – does
it resonate with the same spirit?
Looking at the process of imparting and receiving
knowledge critically, this aspect is often fulfilled in
the institute, often not. Not all classes vibrate with the
exchange of high-quality education, something which
both students and faculty acknowledge. Comparing
this to the gurukul scenario, students and teachers
often spent years in the same physical space together
learning concepts, which were then internalised with
practical exposures in daily life. IIT has similar means
and opportunities of gurukuls. We live on this campus;
we have, literally, the space to explore different fron-
tiers of knowledge and directions that it can flow
in, from teacher to student to teacher, and so forth.
Despite the similarities, has the rich physical experi-
ence of learning prevalent in gurukuls translated itself
to our current context of IIT?
STUDENT SPEAK
Grim-looking Gurus
Illustration by Rajarshi Ray, IDC
2
(continued from page 1)
Emotionally, the shishya in a gurukul surrendered
himself completely to his guru. He wanted to learn
everything he could possibly extract from his guru
– an almost godlike figure. Thousands of years later,
this emotional direction has radically changed ways.
What students and teachers offer each other here has
been affected by the fact that we are mentally, socially,
economically, culturally and even genetically, worlds
apart from our ancestors.The larger picture for both
sides is different and seems to be independent, yet
dependent on the relationship that both share.
Students and professors both seem to have pre-
articulated their goals in their minds, which creates
boundaries not just in the extent to which they would
want to develop a relation with each other, but also
how they choose to give and receive knowledge. In a
gurukul, the concept of becoming a ‘graduate’ had an
almost spiritual significance: one awoke to the truth.
In our time, most students and professors seem to
have clear answers to why they are here, what they are
HARISHCHANDRA RAmADAS, Fourth Year Undergraduate, Engineering Physics Department
doing and what they need to do in the future. With
most of their fundamental questions answered, has
this changed the fabric of the philosophy guiding the
learning and teaching experience at IIT?
We spoke to professors and students about their inter-
actions with each other. Although we began these
discussions with pre-existing notions in mind, their
perspectives made us reflect on them again. IITB is
a class apart not just because it is considered to be
one of the best engineering institutes in the country,
but also because there is something strikingly uncon-
ventional about the air here. In a place where most
endeavours, academic or otherwise are motivated by a
fusion of passion and intellect, there had to be some-
thing bohemian and unique in the interactions within
the academic community here. However, both sides
agreed that interactions between faculty and students
were not as plentiful or satisfactory as they hoped.
Intriguingly, each presented different rationales for
this. How were their stories different?
T raditional Hindu education was based on the
concept that the guru is high up on a pedestal, to
be equated with god. (‘Gurur sakshat parabrahma’) This
hierarchy meant that a student was on a much lower
level than the teacher. Unfortunately, this culture has
pervaded our entire education system, hindering the
process of interaction between students and profes-
sors. It works beautifully if the flow of information is in
one direction: from guru to shishya. But we have now
awakened to the fact that we can’t be passive learners;
we need to be skeptical, ask questions, search for alter-
natives, etc. This is why the education system of our
ancestors does not suit us any longer, and needs to be
changed. Any flow of ideas cannot be possible unless
both parties acknowledge each other as equals.
It is hard for students to approach faculty if they
give an impression being stiff and harsh. When I say
impressions, I am drawing upon the initial interactions
which have happened in class. Many times, a profes-
sor will appear to be strict, he or she will not smile at
all even if there is no palpable reason behind his grim
expression. This does not go very far in endearing that
professor to his or her students.
There is a belief that Student Feedback also reflects
the levels of student-professor interaction. The percep-
tion is that if a professor teaches well, he or she is sure
to get good grades in the feedback form. But this is
flawed. Too many times if students in a course encoun-
ter a professor who teaches well but is a harsh grader,
they will give him or her low grades. I am not sure how
many professors (or students) take Student Feedback
seriously, but it is possible that this bias may be
reflected in their decision to interact with such
a professor too.
 Raintree October-November-December 2010

Insulated Islands
jAyA joSHI

were we? Well, i’ll let the numbers speak. never
before have we had an issue that is dominated by 10
Opinion pieces, some mild and some rather strong.
So dear Readers, be warned, this issue of Raintree is
opinionated! Of course do remember that Raintree
has provided a platform and the views expressed are
those of the authors’.
On the one hand, there’s a well-worded opinion from
bhakti Joshi, a Research Scholar on the divide between
a PG and a uG and on the other hand there’s a word-
less, yet equally expressive opinion on the same topic
illustrated through cartoons by Akvil Sakhare, an
undergraduate student. The gender divide is close
to many. isn’t it? We have two opinion pieces on this
subject – one from a fresher and the other from a
campus resident. We also have some more takes
on regional divides and student and TA (Teaching
Assistant) crossover in a light-hearted manner.
me a silent right to start conversations (sometimes
difficult) or break barriers with great ease. but
strangely in my 2.5 years in this place, i still feel i
haven’t been as nosey as i am capable of getting. i
think it’s time to re-look at my own interactions.
This issue is also special, because it features some
extremely opinionated letters. This is what we at
Raintree have always wanted. 8 issues ago, the
magazine started out as an alternative space to
reflect varied viewpoints. While its multiple usages
still remains most favoured by its subscribers (don’t
miss the backpage comic strip by Rajarshi Ray of iDc),
it has grown in its popularity for its edgy themes. We
have always wanted to create an environment that
encourages and nurtures ideas and opinions and
we are happy to see that happening through some
penetrating mails i get on pro@iitb.ac.in or letters by
post. Please keep them streaming in.

Just like there are Dilliwallahs and bombaywallahs,
we are campuswallahs. We have our typical ways
that unite us and make us stand apart from the
rest of the world. While we see the same patterns
reproduced in all levels of this cosmos, we also
have a diverse range of microcosms. Within these
unifying repetitions that create a larger social body
of the campus there are also complex demogra-
phies, languages, food habits and sub-cultures of
different campus communities that co-exist, func-
tioning in their own little insulated islands.
in this issue of Raintree, we have tried to get nosey.
We have tried to take communications between
unlike minds to a different level. in a bid to engage
islands of students, staff, professors and their fami-
lies, we wanted to chart dialogues that generate
cross-connections between them. How successful
While i’m happy to present so many different voices,
especially from the student community, i would’ve
been happier if we could’ve also included some self-
expressed opinions from faculty and staff. The Lead
Perspective deals with the interactions or lack of them
between faculty and students through a montage of
their voices. While working on this, we tried (and tried
very hard) to revive the vanishing art of conversations,
but that just did not materialise. Eventually we got
these two groups to talk on the same topic, just not to
each other. i wish they had. Anyway, i’m hoping, after
reading this, it will lead to one or two or three...
One thing about a publicist’s job is that you can’t
be excluded. Everybody else’s business can be your
business. i’ve been doing this for 13 years now so that
should make me offensively inquisitive and curious.
So far, i’ve been okay with that role, because it gave
i know we’re late in coming out with this issue, but
weren’t the last two months just overwhelming
with activities and submissions? Most of our team
of editors and illustrators were unavailable, hence
the delay. but here we are and on behalf of the
team, i’m proud to present this 9th issue, which i
personally think is one of our best. The illustrations
are top-class and are only getting better. Let me
know what you think. We will, however, miss our
regular graphic page (not sure what it was) ‘The
upside of Down’ by Sweetie Ahluwalia, who has
taken a break from us (temporary hopefully) ‘to get
a life’. We really hope Sweetie gets one and returns
to us soon. in the mean time, Prof. Happy Ahluwalia
has gently stepped in to fill-in the void. in this issue
we present his pointed remarks on walking.
That’s it...Happy new Year!

NEwS
To the Croc who Couldn’t make it to the Campus…
R aintree has won the Association of Commonwealth
Universities’ (ACU) PR, Marketing and
Communications Awards, 2010 in the Corporate
Publications category. The award was announced at
a special gala dinner of the ACU conference held in
November 2010 at Melbourne. We’re not boasting but
just to let you know, Raintree competed with 81 entries
received from 43 universities in 15 countries.

judge’s Comment: This is an extremely well thought

out publication, from the research undertaken before the
launch, to its lifestyle format – I like the idea of the window
for ‘looking in’ and ‘looking out’ and the alternative space
concept. It is indicative of a confident and purposeful
institution and one willing to take risks and, potentially,
receive criticism. It is well written, even if some articles are
rather long, but has a variety of visual approaches, includ-
ing good graphics, some good photographs and good
captioning. Not many universities are willing to go down
this route – it is a great strength of this entry.

I am also impressed Raintree fits into a ‘bouquet’ of

communication material and the way the magazine fits
into an overall revamp of all marketing material.

This is the actual trophy but we couldn’t bring it to the campus as the Australian Airport Authority has strange rules that don’t al-
low wild animals to travel by economy

So ACU replaced it with this...

oh well…

3
Raintree October-November-December 2010
INBoX
Letters to the Editor
Your articles in the latest issue of Raintree make a very
interesting read. May I compliment you on having turned
the spotlight on the unorganised sector in our campus.
m.V. Hariharan, Retd. Professor
Thanks for putting me on your mailing list. I’m a
bit old fashioned and prefer the paper copy to the
email version. Not only do I read it, I pass it on to a
colleague’s wife who reads a lot (on asking her if she
would like me to pass on Raintree to her after I am
done, she gave an emphatic yes).
It was a delightful issue… as have been all the earlier
issues. Please do keep it up. You can also think of
doing an investigative story on corporates involv-
ing their employees in CSR activities. For example an
unbiased article on VIDYA Mumbai (earlier inside the
IITB campus, but now working outside the campus).
I believe that this organisation, with funding from
Capita/Prudential, HSBC, etc., and volunteers as well
as IITB students, has done some good for the less
privileged.
Prof. Santosh K. Gupta, Department of Chemical
Engineering, IIT Kanpur
This has been the most interesting edition of Raintree.
I look forward to seeing a sequel.
Dr. Soumyajit mukherjee, Department of Earth
Sciences
STUDENT SPEAK
When Giving Means Receiving
mAyUR SRINIVASAN Fourth Year Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering Department
I n the scenario that Harish
has mentioned, of a
teacher being on a pedes-
tal, I believe the onus to
begin any interaction lies
on the professor. As a figure
of authority it is easier for
him or her to break the ice
with students. At the end
of the day, human interac-
tion is a choice; there are
various factors which could make or break a student’s
decision to approach or not approach a professor.
One of the major factors is a professor’s non-verbal
communication. If a professor exudes an aura of rigid-
ity or distances himself from students then students
will naturally look the other way. In fact, students will
discuss this among themselves and try to find other
avenues to resolve their doubts or ask questions, since
they can’t approach that professor.
Another factor that, in my opinion, plays a large role in
4
Thanks for putting an issue like this together. The
stories were inspiring and touching. All the best!
Prof. Krithi Ramamritham, CSE
Apropos the article of Ms. Joshi ‘Impermanence
Inspires’ covering the noble service rendered by
impermanent myriads within the campus. The effort
is stupendous and praiseworthy. This article made me
think after having worked for more than four decades
as a permanent zest, I still remain an “Otherlander”
with huge invisibility and transience among the insti-
tute’s other workers.
The editor believes in impermanence. Her philosophy
of travelling and not staying put at one place may be
right. However, I have the satisfaction of assisting more
than 550 PhD, M.Tech and B.Tech scholars in the field
of Fluid Mechanics during the last four decades - satis-
faction of imputing something good while permanent
– satisfaction of ruminating many memorable days.
S. Prakash, mechanical Engineering Department
I enjoy reading stories about campus life in Raintree.
The magazine is more down to earth and humane
than the old campus diary. This month’s edition is
somewhat different and interesting but paints the
picture of a small circle: the milkman that Bhavini Pant
knows, a maid who works at Damayanti Bhattacharya’s
house etc. Yes, there are stories about the Guesthouse
workers and others, but they are paid for the work
they do, and they do not have to work as in the private
hospitality business.
I, however, have this real life story to share with you.
I am doing M. Tech from Computer Science and
Engineering, my father works at IIT Bombay, as an
Attendant. Regardless of the hardships my father faced in
his initial years at the institute, he did not give up.
I did my engineering from a Mumbai University
college. In my third year of engineering I cracked
GATE. It was my dream to study at IIT Bombay, where
I was born and brought up. It was my parents who
motivated us to educate ourselves, my mom did baby-
sitting, tailoring to support the expenses of education.
He educated my sister (who is doing M.Sc in a college
here) and me. We both studied in K.V. IIT, Powai. Living a
determining faculty-student interactions is the age of
the professor. I have often noticed that professors of a
higher age are less approachable than those younger
and therefore, closer to our own ages. (However, this is
by no means applicable to every professor. The oppo-
site is also true.) Certain professors of an advanced
age often stick to conventional methods of teach-
ing, are slightly less open as compared to younger
professors and therefore, a sense of disconnect sets
in early into the duration of our time spent with them.
Young professors, and more importantly young-at-
heart professors are usually more open, keen to form
connections with students.
There are times when professors do not know all
the answers, or are slightly uncomfortable with the
concepts they are teaching. When students want to
interact with professors, and professors are equally
keen about reaching out to them, neither will students
judge this ‘lack’ poorly, nor will professors feel insecure
about themselves, if this happens. Instances like this
have happened, and whenever the professor has been
life in Mumbai can be really expensive, right from food
to the clothing.
My parents motivated me to study further, even after I
got a job offer from Infosys in my third year. My family
comes from a very humble background. To educate
my sister and me, they had to make tremendous sacri-
fices. Other people, when they talk to me, tell me that I
have done a good job. But my journey is not over yet. I
have miles to go before I sleep.
Swapnil jadhav, Graduate student, Computer
Science and Engineering
I really liked the interview of Prof. Dipan Ghosh from
the Department of Physics that appeared in the
May-June-July 2010 issue of Raintree. It was a pleasure
to read some of his comments particularly those on
the contributions made by the campus residents to its
ecology. The question, however, is if the institute has
been able to adequately recognise and reciprocate
these efforts made.
His honesty and modesty at admitting his regret for not
being able to persuade the Board to extend the post-
retirement medical facilities to those who retired prior
to 2003 was deeply heartening. The imposition of a cut
off date of 30.6.2003 for PRMS was a major shock for the
majority of the retired community of 1980 employees
which must have dwindled by now, who were rendered
ineligible by this cut-off date excepting a few. A report
on the Medical Benefit Scheme for retired employees
of IIT Bombay was submitted to the Association of the
Retired Employees IIT Bombay in 1996.
Recent media reports on ‘IITB Alumni launching the
Health Care Plan for the retired faculty’ and ‘graduat-
ing batch giving 1% of their salary back to IITB’ have
been positive and encouraging. But what about the
remaining retired employees in the administrative,
technical and non-technical staff who equally contrib-
uted enormously during the last 50 years?
The Association has not lost hope and believes there is
a silver lining to every dark cloud.
Shri A. K. Dharap, Association of Retired
Employees of IIT Bombay
honest with his or her students, regard and respect for
him or her has only increased in the hearts of students.
There are rare incidents when professors put up even
negative student feedback they have received on their
personal websites! Many times, my decision to do a
project under a particular professor has depended
simply upon the fact that he or she has been very
open and honest with me, no matter what the situ-
ation. An instant bond of trust is formed; there is no
way I would overlook an emotional initiative like that.
Ultimately, the decision to interact with a profes-
sor follows a circular path. If he or she has been not
just a good teacher, but also a good person who
has inspired me, I would definitely want to take our
interactions beyond the classroom and learn more.
Following this, I am sure that once a professor encoun-
ters such a student, he or she will strive to enhance
their interactions even more. Course structures can
be designed in a manner that increases interactions
between professors and students – this is already
prevalent in a few departments.

Teaching versus Preaching: Recognising the Bottomline
NIKUNj jHA Fourth Year Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering Department
I would like to go back
to Harish’s point about
teachers giving an impres-
sion of being quite austere.
There are professors who
may teach very well, but
if I had the choice, would
I want to initiate an asso-
ciation beyond what my
academics demand? If I approach them with a question
I don’t think I would ever be refused or turned away.
But I do feel that the manner in which even this basic
communication takes place sets the tone for any further
interaction. Very often one can clearly detect contempt
towards the undergraduates from the professor’s side,
which may be the result of bad experiences over last
few years of teaching, but it instantly creates a barrier
between the student and the teacher. Quite often,
when teachers stereotype all undergraduate students
with similar characteristics of being disinterested and
inclined towards academic dishonesty, it immediately
“Does he have good fundae in life?”
ASHwIN KRISHNAN, Fouth Year Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering Department
I would like to go back to
the ‘putting professor on a
pedestal’ point. What I essen-
tially believe is that it’s not
that the professor is really on
a pedestal, we think of him
or her as being on a pedestal
in our minds. This happens
not simply because profes-
sors have more to offer in terms of knowledge, but
also because our fear mentally distances the professor
from us. We may have contemplated interacting with a
teacher but our apprehensions, like – what if the profes-
sor gets offended, what if he or she misunderstands
what I meant to say (and what if there are unpleasant
consequences for this) – stop us from actually forging
a connection.
Also, I feel that many times we let appearances deceive
where do I begin?: Taking the First Initiative
NAmAN LAHoTy, Third Year Undergraduate, Chemical Engineering Department
Interactions between
students and professors
are definitely not enough.
But I do not believe that
the complete responsibility
lies on the professor. Many
times students do not ask
doubts or questions during
a class discussion. In such
cases, where will an interac-
tion begin? The first space
for any expression of feelings, particularly in a class-
room, is in asking a question, often subject-related. But
most students hardly do that, so it is no surprise that
there is no dialogue happening in class at all, whether
academic or otherwise.
One thing that can be done to improve student-faculty
interactions is to increase the amount of academic activ-
ity which requires the student to be in close contact
with his or her professor. Projects, presentations, etc.
are opportunities which are not exploited enough (in
terms of both sides interacting with each other) simply
because they are not given enough space or impor-
tance in the curricula. During the course of doing
academic work, perhaps the continued collaboration
between a professor and a student will develop into a
bond which is beyond academics.
pushes the students to dislike the teacher concerned. In
my opinion, the more respect a teacher commands, the
less likely students are to cheat or copy in his course.
Another issue that irks me is the inherent assumption
of our purpose in life from the professor’s side and the
implicit imposition of their value system on ours. For
example, my motive for coming to IIT may be to get the
best undergraduate education in the country and use it as
a stepping stone to go for an MBA and hence move into
finance. The quantitative and analytical skills developed
as an engineering graduate give me a huge advantage in
such jobs. Why then, the judgment on professors’ part that
we came to IIT to become engineers and we are cheat-
ing the system by choosing an alternate career path. And
further, why the imposition of a career on research on us,
usually implicitly and sometimes explicitly? I am only high-
lighting these issues because these unsaid and unvoiced
differences in the mindset between professors and
students have come to define our relationship and wide
cracks have developed in professor-student relationships
us too much. Simply because we feel that a professor
seems to behave in a particular way, we tend to distance
ourselves from him or her, and not even try to make an
effort to connect. Have we actually tried approaching
that professor, or are we simply acting upon hearsay
and shutting him or her out? There are professors who
are known to be ‘terrors’ because they are often ruth-
less with their students if approached. But keeping
these perceptions aside, I have often approached such
professors (and often with inconsequential doubts).
Although I have been rebuffed initially, the professors
have acknowledged the fact that there is someone who
is keen to approach them with the genuine intent of
knowing more. And in my later interactions with them,
there have been tangible differences in their manner.
I feel humour works wonders with endearing students
towards a professor. Even if a professor doesn’t possess
the knack of being funny, just being a bit friendly can
Coming to Ashwin’s point about professors appear-
ing to have a personal agenda, maybe they advise us
against taking certain courses simply because they
want us to excel in our core courses first. Academics are
definitely important, and it is easier for professors to see
the larger picture. Also, I feel that interactions between
students and professors are a result of how much effort
both sides want to put into it. I know professors who do
not believe in imposing an attendance criterion on their
classes. And yet, they get some of the highest levels of
Raintree October-November-December 2010
over the years due to them. Unless, both the sides try to
understand each others’ views and perspectives there is no
progress possible, but as of now, only one-sided exchange
of views takes place.
And lastly, but not the least, in order to have healthy
interaction with the professors we need to respect
them. However, in many cases, when professors reveal
themselves to be extremely egoistic about small or
even big things, it becomes really hard to put them on
a pedestal. I would not want to interact with an egois-
tic guy my age, much less with an egoistic authoritative
figure like a professor who is unyielding to reason.
Examples would be cases when I have had teachers
berate me for wasting their time with requests which
may be trivial to them but are extremely important to
me. Even the greatest of men show more compassion
than that to someone who needs their help. Unless, we
are collectively able to handle these issues pervading
amidst the society in IIT Bombay, the old days of profes-
sor-student kinship may never be back.
go very far. We have often experienced this during vivas
with certain professors. It is no mystery that students
frequently give fluke answers during vivas. But certain
professors, confronted with those ridiculous answers
have made fun of it, turning the joke onto us. This,
of course, makes a huge difference in our attitudes
towards accepting our mistakes but has also made us
fond of them as people too. (I am not saying it’s okay to
under-prepare for exams or vivas.)
Very often I feel students honestly want to interact
with professors in a more qualitative manner as well.
It depends on the personality of the professor, and
whether he has good ‘fundaes’ in life. If I feel a particu-
lar professor is experienced, and has a lot to offer me in
terms of the lessons he or she has learnt in life, I would
definitely want to ask him or her general tips and guid-
ance on living life, too.
Illustration by Akvil Sakhare, Mechanical Engineering
attendance. This means that students do desire a rich
interaction with professors, and vice versa. When this
happens, strong relations are built.
Student Speak compiled by: Bhavini Pant (Campus Resident ),
antarikSh Bothale (4th year, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering)
Disclaimer: The views expressed in these articles are those of the
authors’ and do not necessarily represent those of IIT Bombay or of
Raintree
5
Raintree October-November-December 2010

FACULTy SPEAK
The Large Classroom as a Hindrance
PRoF. RAVI RAGHUNATHAN, Department of Mathematics

P rof. Ravi Raghunathan

was an undergraduate
at St. Xavier’s, Mumbai and
he went on to do his PhD
from Yale University. He has
been an instructor for both
undergraduate as well as
post-graduate courses.

II think students and teachers have always had somewhat

different priorities at IIT (and elsewhere too, of course). It
is unreasonable to expect otherwise. My job is to teach
mathematics, but I realise that classroom learning is only
one of the things that may interest a student.

I am not sure whether things have got that much worse

in the last few years. One thing that has happened is
that class sizes have got much bigger and that definitely
means that faculty members and students get much
less time to know each other. An increase in class size
also means that there are more students in a given batch
who are pursuing a major which was not their first choice
which probably decreases their motivation. I expect that
this is especially true of the B.Tech students who may
feel neglected over the course of several years. In the
Department of Mathematics, our M.Sc. classes are small,
so we don’t have the same kind of problems. I do get to
know a few of the B.Tech students a little better – typi-
cally those pursuing a minor in Mathematics or B.Tech
projects and seminars in our department.

There are also very few common areas on campus where

students and faculty members might meet in a more
informal setting. Only a very small percentage of both
communities use the gymkhana grounds, for instance.
Even otherwise, I am not sure if students really want
to socialise with faculty members and vice-versa. And
perhaps that’s not such a bad thing. Illustration by Akvil Sakhare, Mechanical Engineering

Realistic Expectations PRoF. P. I. PRADEEPKUmAR, Department of Chemistry

P rof. P. I. Pradeepkumar
completed his PhD
from Uppsala University
and went to the US for his
post-doctoral training. He
teaches classes of post-
graduate students as well
as first year students.
Different views exist across different tiers of faculty
members on the nature of the student-faculty rela-
tionship. Younger professors are definitely better
placed to have a more informal and open relationship
with students. However, a balanced approach should
be taken and the student should not look to take
any advantage of this relationship. Healthier profes-
sional relationships need to be nurtured. Our students
tend to be demanding and judgmental on certain
occasions. For instance, a faculty member’s inability
to answer a question on-the-spot is often taken as
an indicator of incompetence. So there needs to be a
balance on both sides in terms of expectations from
each other.
Most students who enter IIT these days have under-
gone extensive training for JEE which bestows them
with an attitude which lays great focus on problem
solving and result orientation. The flip side is that
this leads to the students relying on shortcuts and
getting to the answer rather than focusing on using
the correct approach. This JEE syndrome is some-
thing they suffer from until the later stages of their
programme. Students need to unlearn what they’ve
learnt and start anew, if they are to make the best use
of an IIT education.
Also, undergraduate students tend to get distracted
far more easily. Many of them might be multi-talented
and would want to dabble with different pursuits,
which might result in them not being able to balance
out their priorities, what with junior students being
told by their seniors that an emphasis on extra-curricu-
lar activities is a must. Of course, it does help in overall
development – our students seem to be potent at
managing large events such as MI and Techfest – but
some kind of a priority has to be accorded to one’s
academic plans. Counselling mechanisms or self-help
lectures might be of help in such a situation.
At leading American universities, people take their
academics very seriously. Even large classes (>700)
have packed classrooms. Our students here take atten-
dance only as seriously as they are made to. One look
at 8.30 am classes would bear testimony to that.

Today’s Student – A Mystery PRoF. mILIND SoHoNI, Department of Computer Science

P rof. Milind Sohoni was

first an undergradu-
ate student and then a post
Our students are certainly far more competent than we
were in our student days – they know what button to
press and how to install which software and so on. But
commanding the same price if made to stand out there
in the market, all on their own?

graduate student at the
institute. Apart from taking
department courses, he also
teaches at the Center for
Technology Alternatives in Rural Areas (CTARA)
There is definitely a disconnect between the faculty
and the students. Today’s student is a bit of a mystery
to me, to be honest. I don’t really know what drives
them and I only have my speculations.
they’ve become a lot more apolitical and formulaic. I
suspect that is because they’ve spent years in coach-
ing classes and continue doing that once they get here,
with CAT coaching classes and all. The student tends to
look for a prescription in everything, and lacks the skills
to look at problems from different angles. There is a
great desperation and insecurity about today’s students
– the pay package that they get and the company that
they get into tends to define who they are, and if they
flop on this count, they take it to heart. There is no
sense of true self-worth. Would they be confident of
It is not as if we were perfect students in the “good
old days”. IIT was a far different place back then. We
did not aspire to be MIT. Quite a few faculty members
used to take pride in teaching well and even the
students appreciated people who were sharp and
quick with their ‘fundae’. We didn’t have any inter-
net so we had to pass time by talking to each other or
reading. If there’s one thing that would characterise
students in our time though, it’d be the fact that we
were confident of ourselves and knew our worth.

6

The tracks students have set up today – getting into the
institute, going the MI/Techfest way or sitting for CAT and
the like, I don’t know what to make of them. Of course, the
faculty’s not free of blame either. We do not really inspire,
we don’t go out a lot. We focus on our research, which in
itself is a rather shallow term. While we live in a third world
country, we solve problems which belong to first world
nations. Our students want to get into a third society which
Changed Priorities of Students
PRoF. HEmENDRA ARyA, Department of Aerospace Engineering
P rof. Hemendra Arya
was a PhD student here
during the 90’s. He takes
classes for under-graduate
as well as post-graduate
students.
A gap between students and faculty members does
exist. The interaction could have been much better
and far more fruitful. Students today have a differ-
ent set of priorities. Academics are certainly not top
priority for most of them, who are more susceptible to
market reactions these days.
The large number of students in today’s classrooms
has certainly contributed to increasing this gap
between faculty and students. Beyond a certain critical
Making the Best of It
P rof. V. M. Gadre was a
student at IIT Delhi. He
has had extensive interac-
tion with undergraduate
as well as post-graduate
students in his role as over-
seer of the mentorship
programmes for both these categories as well as in his
capacity as Associate Dean (Academic Programme)
I believe that the aim of a residential institute is to
have students grow in the presence of the faculty,
much like the ancient Indian Gurukul tradition. In our
campus, we have undergraduate students, who are
from a certain (relatively homogeneous) age group,
and postgraduate students from a different, more
diverse set of age groups and likewise for faculty. So
the existence of a gap is, to an extent, natural and
perhaps even healthy. Undergraduate students bring
to the table a fresh set of perspectives ‘untainted by
reality’. Postgraduate students, having been through
the rigours of one degree programme, have a good
balance of perspective and experience. Faculty
members bring in a large body of wisdom, experience
and a well-rounded perspective.
However, we have not been able to make the best use
of the situation at our disposal. On both sides, there
is a tendency to stereotype the other, which we must
guard against.
Students, by nature, are full of enthusiasm and posi-
tive energy. Faculty members also, by and large, are
very compassionate beings. Even so, due to stress,
lack of time or some other factors, both are occasion-
ally prone to look upon each other as stereotyped
clusters. This, in my opinion, is undesirable. One must
try and inculcate in students a sense of wonder and a
spirit of learning from their professors while we faculty
members also need to make the effort of looking upon
our students as multi-dimensional beings, recognis-
ing their varied talents rather than looking at everyone
through the same prism.
Another aspect of the relationship pertains to
Raintree October-November-December 2010
is far from the real problems of the country and far from If it is anyone who can remedy the situation, I think
the academic world we faculty lock ourselves up in. While students can. They can demand a better experience
a fundamental difference has always existed between out here, and they will get it – that is what separates
faculty members who have their job and family to tend to, us from most other engineering colleges around. The
and students who are at the beginning of their lives, this situation needs the energy and verve of a 17-year old.
absence of a priority match in previously shared spaces is You’ve got to find the creative streak in you. An MIT
reducing whatever little interaction we used to have. or a McKinsey requires an understanding of your own
issues, first and foremost.
number, the number of students who interact with the
instructor remains fixed and the number who do not,
increases, which contributes to the alienation on both
From our side, we certainly want our students to do well
and we do what we can to ensure that. But the students
cannot be handed everything on a platter. They have
sides. Of course, there are students who just do not to come forward and take it and if they don’t, it is their
want to interact with the professor, and they are not loss. The students must understand that academics are
even our target group. Even if half the class gets what the forte of an IIT education and that all-round develop-
we’re talking about, our job can be said to be done. ment should not come at its cost.
A forced interaction would not be the answer to this; As for the gap between post-grads and undergrads on
the interaction has to be natural. The interaction campus, interaction definitely helps, but one must under-
component can definitely be increased be enhanced stand that both these groups have different priorities and
by increasing the number of project-based assign- that must be respected. I can safely say that there is far
ments where the students would have to get back greater interaction between them now than there was in
to their professors and discuss things out with them. the 90s, when I was a PhD student here. TA-ship has been
However, with the increased classroom size, I do not a major contributing factor to this. However, the insti-
really know how such an activity would work out. tute’s decision to shift all post-grads to hostels 12, 13 and
14 might have inadvertently set things back on this front.
PRoF. V. m. GADRE, Department of Electrical Engineering
classroom interaction. A classroom experience is a
complex one, with different levels of engagement.
Intellectual engagement is only one component of a
to grow in a natural way from here.
I believe that student-faculty interaction can thrive. It
lecture. We probably do not adequately recognise the is just that we have never really turned our attention
other, more subtle components of a classroom situa- adequately towards it.
tion – which are as important. A teacher and a student .
should, ideally, also interact on a personal level and on Faculty Speak compiled by: aShwath kirthyvaSan(5th
an emotional level. The student must also realise that year, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering), SiDDharth
the classroom is more than a venue of mere informa- Shukla(5th year, Dept. of Chemistry) and Mohit SharMa(5th
tion disbursal. Even apart from the subject matter and year, Dept. of Civil Engineering)
its treatment, there are human values that are learnt
– engagement with a wiser mind and conversations/ Disclaimer: The views expressed in these articles are those
positive exchanges with one’s peers, which enhance of the authors’ and do not necessarily represent those of IIT
our knowledge and perspectives. A classroom experi- Bombay or of Raintree
ence is invaluable; many in
the country yearn for it and
do not have it!
To make the best of the situ-
ation at our disposal, we
need to activate the various
platforms that exist at differ-
ent levels in the institute
– for dialogue and common
endeavours between the
students and faculty. Quite a
few people across the ‘gap’
share certain hobbies and
interests which can bring
them together. I believe that
these can help activate the
flow of ideas from one side
to the other. The authorities,
on their part, need to show
consideration for and encour-
agement of such platforms.
Needless to say, construc-
tive interaction needs to
grow organically. It cannot
be legislated to the end.
Legislation, arranging
platforms is only a facilitat-
ing mechanism. Positive,
common endeavours need Illustration by Akvil Sakhare, Mechanical Engineering
7
Raintree October-November-December 2010

oPINIoN
Our Chinese Wall
ANTARIKSH BoTHALE Fourth Year Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering Department

W hen I come across IITB professors outside traditional

classroom/department settings —jogging around
SAC grounds, or shopping at DMart — I feel a weird sort
of disconnect, as if there is a giant rift that separates their
lives from ours, despite the two being in close proximity.
This feels stranger because of the way I grew up.
Back in school, I was very lucky to have excellent
relations with most of my teachers, both in terms of
in-class interaction and outside-class contact. It was
all pretty laid-back, while I still gave them the respect
they deserved. On Diwali, I would call and wish them
because I wanted to, and not merely out of courtesy,
hierarchy or protocol. And I never needed to stoop to
sycophancy to gain their love or approval. Quite the
contrary, I was exceedingly frank and normal with and
around them and I like to flatter myself that this was
probably the reason they liked me.
Now, this may be a one-off case, but when I came to IITB,
I expected at least a small fraction of that interaction
to happen here. In my naivete, I imagined profes-
sors who would come to classes enthusiastically, their
passion gushing forth, and would try to connect with
all the students — that unique sort of teacher-student
bond that defies explanation. This was supposed to be
Eye-Eye-Tee. Prof. Sunoj’s CH103 lectures stood out like
beacons of hope. He considered it his duty, and a matter
of pride, to know most of his students by name (at least
all the ones who attended regularly). When he taught in
class, he exuded joy and enthusiasm, and had the prover-
bial spring in his step. He wanted to connect with his
students — looking at them as people.
do not exhibit that human component I yearn for. It is
very automaton-ish — a robot coming to teach robots.
The robot puts in a lot of effort into teaching, but it’s still
a robot. But again, why blame it, considering it is stuck
with a bunch of robots to be taught — most students
join IITB without even wanting to be engineers, and
demonstrate clear indifference towards academics.
There are other causes too. We might live in the same
campus, but we hardly live together. It’s like being on
two different islands. This insular cohabitation, where
our lives and their lives are disconnected once we leave
the Academic Area (for most students, IITB life is outside
Academic Area), might be responsible for isolating us
completely. Unlike boarding schools, where the lives
of teachers and students are intertwined, students
and professors go their own separate ways out here.
Therefore the status quo is hardly surprising.
Of course, the situation varies across departments.
Engineering Physics scores relatively high, for
example — quite a few professors there are pretty
friendly. From whatever I have heard, the Aerospace
Department also rules in this respect (their cultural
night, in which both students and professors partici-
pate enthusiastically, is quite looked forward to).
Mechanical and CSE also has a few very inspiring
professors. And of course, most professors know their
PG/PhD students quite well — a direct result of the
increased interaction they have.
“Quite a few professors
consider research their primary
responsibility and teaching as
something that they are stuck
with. However, they aren’t
completely to blame — many
of my friends couldn’t care
less about professor-student
interaction than they do
about attending lectures.”
Now, this might all seem romanticised, but I love teach-
ing myself, and I hold student-teacher relationships
in high regard. Perhaps I am asking for too much. Old
school though it may sound, I am still a sucker for simple
things like good classroom experience and interaction. I
began writing this article with the intent of blaming it all
on professors for what I perceived as their indifference,
but as I near the end, I realise that the situation would
be much better off if both sides tried to change them-
selves just a little bit. Let’s see how long that takes — I
am quite full of hope. Until then, Sir, I hope to wave at
you the next time I see you in a DMart aisle… and who
knows, we might compare shopping lists too!
Disclaimer: The views expressed in these articles are those
of the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of IIT
Bombay or of Raintree

If I had thought that things would be the same for all

other courses, I was wrong. Class sizes were low, and
most professors taught pretty well and were nice, but
it was seldom that I saw the sort of interaction and
connection that used to bring the most inveterate
absentees to Prof. Sunoj’s lectures (the record atten-
dance was 90%, I think). It isn’t that people like him are
rare, but they are certainly fewer than what I would
expect or like.

I’m not sure how many professors even know (or wish
to know) their regular students by name. I feel this is
the first step towards knowing your students, towards
looking at them as individuals who have come to
learn, and connecting with them at some level. I am
a TA and have the typical 3-hours-a-week interaction
with my class. I feel proud that I can refer to all of my
students by name.

Quite a few professors consider research their primary

responsibility and teaching as something that they are
stuck with. However, they aren’t completely to blame
— many of my friends couldn’t care less about profes-
sor-student interaction than they do about attending
lectures, and even most of the regular ones would
prefer having their professors at least two arm-lengths
away from them. Professors in general and academics in
particular, are seen for the most part, as necessary evils.
Moreover, professors who teach well but aren’t gener-
ous with grading might be unpopular despite all their
efforts. Given this, it would only be fair to expect that
our teachers might not feel all that motivated about
teaching — the apathy would be bilateral.

But this is not about professors who don’t teach well...

The problem is that many of those who do teach well

“when I came to IITB, I imagined

professors who would come to
classes enthusiastically, their
passion gushing forth, and
would try to connect with all
the students — that unique
sort of teacher-student bond
that defies explanation.” Illustration by Ankita Roy, IDC

8

oPINIoN
Oestrogen and Engineers
BoDHI VANI First Year Undergraduate, Chemistry Department
G irls in IIT are an endangered species: An old adage,
passed down from class to class and year to year,
looming above us scarily in pre-JEE days. Many will tell
you there are no girls — only ‘non-males’, and others will
raise their eyebrows in, what is it, admiration or astonish-
ment? But surprise, surprise, there are girls, we do exist!
And honestly, for the most part we don’t feel the sex ratio
with the harshness that is purported, especially not in the
relatively forward IIT Bombay (the horror stories we hear
of the other IITs will make you balk), except in ways that
are part amusing, if part frustrating.
Hostel 10, synonymous to everything feminine on
campus: the harbour for oestrogen in a world seeping
with the overwhelming stench of testosterone. Walking
into its muddy floors, the first time I entered its unas-
suming gate with small metal rods that spell out ‘H 10’
(like everything else about H10, it’s less flamboyant than
any of the other hostels — ‘Queen of the Campus’, ‘The
Wild Ones’, ‘The Vikings’, ‘Woodlands’, not to speak of the
shuddh (chaste) Hindi chhätraväs teen (hostel three), I
was... to say the least, apprehensive. The rooms are stuffy,
small and cramped, and the basketball court is unused,
swamped, and overgrown with weeds — as opposed
to, for example, H2’s spacious rooms with balconies that
open out to sprawling, well-kept lawns. If this wasn’t
enough, the hostel has, as I learnt later, almost no facilities
— our camera is old and broken, as is our TT and foosball
table, ramshackle music room, and no real canteen to
speak of — as compared to a rumoured Jackson guitar in
H4, and swanky sports facilities in H3, and a finger-licking
tasty canteen in H2. Sure, we do feel the beginnings of
indignation at the lot we’ve been served.
many will tell you there
are no girls — only ‘non-
males’, and others will raise
their eyebrows in, what is it,
admiration or astonishment?
But surprise, surprise, there
are girls, we do exist!”
If our astonishing and in-your-face lack of facilities
weren’t enough to deal with, we have a major bone
to pick with the location. While our hostel is definitely
a safe haven, with the stringent security and grand-
motherly rules, to top it off we’ve been located with
special care, tucked away in a corner of the residential
areas, and very conspicuously separated from the rest
of the student hostels and the Student Activity Centre.
Thus, everything that happens on campus is separated
by the expansive Academic Section and a 20 minute
walk. Oh, the frustration we face when we miss some-
thing on the sole basis of that extra time we spend on
getting to our destinations, or worse, when we go for
it and rant to each other on the way back.
As passionate freshmen (fresh-women?) for the
debating club at IIT Bombay, my friends and I lament
wholeheartedly the long walk to H7 or H2 — which
are invariably the locations for all late-night debate
activities. Of course, we are dropped back by our male
seniors who are well-meaning, if a little patronising
— to quote a sophomore: “I know you freshie girls
are wild, but we’ve got to drop you back anyway”. To
add to that, due to the extreme number of professors
living around us, our night-time noisy activities are
severely restricted. And apart from the practical issues
we face, doesn’t the blatant metaphor of placing us so
evidently away from everyone else mean anything?
One of the few things though, about being a girl in IIT that
makes one grateful is the exclusion from the institute’s
wild, wild student traditions — our bottoms are never
exposed to anyone’s Hawaii chappals at the speed of light
(or, god forbid, studs — it happens!) — fuelled, I am sure,
by the boys’ excessive frustration. Yes, the boys of IIT are
a savage, barbaric bunch of people and the girls are quite
forcibly not. On the other hand, a lot of the enthusiasm of
hostel v/s hostel competitions (and in general, other things
requiring shouting and displaying of marginal barbarism)
is lost with the sieving away of a lot of loud, exuberant
words that the editor would delete with vengeance.
But while we’re on the topic of enthusiasm, many of us
freshmen feel downtrodden by the other hostels. The
aforementioned problem for facilities can be traced
back to the relative lack of enthusiasm in our hostel,
which can, in turn be traced back to the sheer lack of
numbers. Our shouts of “H-Te-e-en, H-ten!” are buried
under the cacophonic screaming, and there just aren’t
Life at IIT ends up being very
different socially for girls, but at
the end of the day, we’re fighting
the same battles with the same
vengeance, and making the
most of the same culture.
Raintree October-November-December 2010
while our hostel is definitely a
safe haven, with the stringent
security and grandmotherly
rules, to top it off we’re very
conspicuously separated from
the rest of the student hostels
and the Student Activity Centre.
enough of us to compete, though that does not mean
the glass ceiling at IIT is intact. Given the number of
GCs and OCs and other fancy student positions occu-
pied by oestrogen-carriers, I’d say the glass ceiling has
been downright blown into smithereens.
Stepping out of the hostel for a moment, one is reminded
of a famous webcomic writer from Stanford who said:
“For female engineering students: The odds are good,
but the goods are odd”. In the large auditoriums that our
classes are conducted, a single girl is likely to be flanked,
not by drooling boys, but instead by at least two empty
chairs (I may be prone to some mild exaggeration, but
the sight is much too amusing to gloss over). Funnily
enough, and quite contrary to expectations, the more
skewed the sex ratio in a class, the less likely a girl is to
make male friends. Our well-oiled, bespectacled geeks
seem to live up to the cliché for the most part, unless of
course you walk past the hostel deep into the ungodly
hours of the night to find the footpaths peppered with
puppy-love conversations in low tones.
If that is one extreme, then the other is the frightening
flock of social networking friendship requests every resi-
dent of H10 is beleaguered with, in letters worded in the
most butchered form of English, with desperate pleas
and flattery in its strangest and to say the least, most
intriguing forms. One of my friends once got a letter that
ran, “Aap aaj itni khoobsurat dikh rahi thhi, mere MA 105
ke paper me FR lag jayega” (You were looking so beauti-
ful today, that I’m going to get an FR in my MA 105 paper).
Life at IIT for girls, ends up being very different socially
for them, but at the end of the day, we’re fighting the
same battles with the same vengeance, and making
the most of the same culture that is thankfully, for
most part, undiscriminating.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in these articles are those
of the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of IIT
Bombay or of Raintree
Illustration by Akshata Prabhu, IDC
9
Raintree October-November-December 2010

oPINIoN – PG
joining the Dots – And Ain’t They Dotty Here!
BHAKTI joSHI Research Scholar

Introduction active and interesting PG student is most welcomed

U Gs: They are the ones who enter the scene at a
very young age, many of them a long way from
home. Friends become second family, the exhilarat-
ing orientations in the first semester are mind-blowing
and enough to change the course of one’s life at IITB.
‘Infinite’ are the ways to express oneself or to prove
one’s ‘godness’; it does not take long to learn to differ-
entiate between ‘daya’ and ‘dayamax’.
They have ways to analyse almost everything in life.
You can identify them even outside the campus, since
at least one among the group will be wearing a “My
Hostel Greatest!!” t-shirt. Riding over the initial tran-
sients of settling in a new place, some of them become
great grade-holders and techies, some great organis-
ers and event managers, some great performers, and
some just try to fit in with the crowd by doing what
everybody else is doing, listening to what everybody
else is listening to (which is mostly rock), and while
doing all this, using IITB lingo whenever possible.
PGs: Very different from the ones described above and
yet, they have something common with UGs. Most of
them have experimented with extra-curricular activities
before coming to IIT, so suddenly they get serious about
their studies. After the initial full-of-novelty days, the life
of a typical PG starts revolving around his/her laboratory
and lab-mates. Well, there are some PG-special activities
(PG Sports and PG Fest) where they are seen participat-
ing in a large number, which is sufficient to prove that
there is no lack of talent and enthusiasm in them!
“…it’s a definite indication that the PGs have started
becoming conscious of the opportunities that are
provided by the institute, and are at a stage where
they need to be taking full advantage of the current
system and exploit the resources provided.”
(Source: http://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~cultural/pgcult2010/
motivation.html)
However, in their day-to-day lives, very few among
in the UG community. Except for the PhD students,
both B.Tech and M.Tech students have a group culture.
Since M.Tech students get only two (or three if they’re
RAs) years in this institute, their social life is limited to
their own group (which, in some cases, is based on a
regional divide).
Attitude difference is one of the main reasons for the
communication gap, and efforts are seldom made to
even really see whether what they feel for each other
is true or not. I believe the proportion of enthusias-
tic people in both the groups is probably more or less
equal. I have met people having equal amounts of
fascination about life and the will to go and explore,
among both UGs and PGs.
Each individual is a world in itself.
These worlds sometimes intersect
superficially and deeply. Every
dot has a different colour, and
joining the dots can result in a
colourful rangolee which will only
add to the beauty of life.
The Lifestyle
After the allotment in a particular hostel, the first
people the UGs get to know are their seniors. The
seniors have a tremendous influence on the UGs in
their initial days (till they themselves become seniors).
This may be more so because of their young age. In
M.Tech students, such an influence is mostly not there.
Also, a larger proportion of UGs spend time in their
respective hostels than PGs because of the laboratory
culture in PGs. This can be one of the reasons for the
lack of communication between them.
There is a difference between the places where these
students hang out. After spending some time in IITB,
Attitude difference is one
of the main reasons for the
communication gap. I have met
people having equal amounts of
fascination about life and the will
to go and explore, among both
UGs and PGs.
I have made an interesting observation – two of the
main tea-coffee-snack joints in IITB are KReSIT canteen
and Coffee Shack, and I have seen the KReSIT canteen
crowded mostly with PGs, and Coffee Shack’s chairs
mostly occupied by UGs. Coffee Shack has always
sounded like a lively and open-minded place to me.
Their always-ready-to-change look must be because
of the easily movable chairs and tables, as opposed to
the KReSIT canteen, where the places one sits on are
concretely bound. For the UGs, the reason for hanging
out at the Shack may be its closeness to the Main
Building classrooms, but there seems to be something
more to it. I would really like to study this aspect in
more detail, but I shall leave it for the future.
Of course, there are smaller worlds within these worlds.
But haven’t things always been like that? Each individual
is a world in itself. These worlds sometimes intersect
superficially and deeply. Every dot has a different colour,
and joining the dots can result in a colourful rangolee
which will only add to the beauty of life.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are of the author
alone and based on the author’s own experience (however little that
may be). Some facts have been obtained from conversations with
friends, who either happen to be PGs or have been both at IITB. The
author takes complete responsibility of this article and wishes to
thank these aforementioned friends for their valuable time. Last but
not the least, the author would like to express her deeply-felt love and
gratitude for this institute due to many reasons, inside and around it.

Riding over the initial transients

of settling in a new place, some
of them become great grade-
holders or organisers, some
just try to fit in with the crowd
by doing what everybody
else is doing, listening to what
everybody else is listening to.”
them are seen to join the UGs in other activities. The
possible reasons for this shall be discussed in a later
section (Beware! I am not done flaunting my techni-
cal writing skills yet!). I have seen them using IITB lingo
as well, but the percentage is lesser than the UGs. The
research output of the institute is mostly due to the
PGs. There are again two sub-groups in them – M.Tech
students and PhDs. (To the author’s modest knowledge,
in local slang, B.Tech students are called ‘batkas’ and
M.Tech students are called ‘matkas’! However, (fortu-
nately) the author is unaware of the slang for PhDs.)

The Interplay
“The single biggest problem in communication is the
illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

The Attitude: From a typical UG perspective, PG

students are hard-working, sincere, a bit narrow-
minded and boring. This sounds a bit unfair, but “life
isn’t fair, kiddo, get used to it!” (Believe me, this is from
South Park). They attend all their lectures sincerely.
However, some of the UGs do have a respect for PGs
and this shows in the way they behave with them. The
source of negative feelings may very well be the fact
that PGs are also painful TAs. But what is hated by a
typical, bright-minded UG student is any PG’s narrow
and boring attitude, rather than the actual person. An Illustration by Susmita Chakrabarty, IDC

10
 Raintree October-November-December 2010

oPINIoN – UG
All in All
W e asked a PG for a take on differences between
PG-UG students and we got an article. We asked
a UG for the same and got a series of comic panels. We
plate to utter full-bodied sentences, let alone string
them together - ‘For what exactly? Oh Raintree!’ There
goes our chance to impress the cynical UG student
priorities and neither do divides. Here’s a
catawampus view of AKVIL SAKHARE and friends on
The Great UG-PG Divide of Perspectives in IIT Bombay.
all know the average UG student has too much on his into action. Raintree doesn’t rank too high on the list of

PG UG

11
Raintree October-November-December 2010

oPINIoN
The Grass on the other Side
moHIT SHARmA Fifth Year Dual Degree, Civil Engineering Department

Saala, ta kahin ka

T As are stupid. They check your assignments and

rarely give you credit where it is due. Your neigh-
bour always gets more marks than you. They mark you
absent if you reach your 2 PM lab fifteen seconds late.
When you pose genuine doubts to them, all they can
do is mumble and stumble. If a female raises a doubt
during a class assignment, then the rest of the class is
damned for the fifteen minutes that all the TAs take
to solve every doubt of hers and desperately try to go
beyond. And if you want marks in exams, you better
brush up on your bargaining skills at one of them apni
mandis or Fashion Street.

Know thy enemy

For the uninitiated, a TA is a teaching assistant to a
professor. TAs teach tutorial classes, grade assign-
ments, correct exam papers, man laboratories and
sometimes even make tea and coffee for their gurus.
To put it mildly, a TA is a professor’s Man Friday of
sorts. To put it severely, a TA is a professor’s bitch,
or that is how it comes across. You see those losers
tailing their professors more faithfully than their own
tails would. You, of course, have your doubts as to
why an IIT professor would trust someone as useless
as this person to check papers or teach students. The
person just doesn’t seem to hold any of the common
sense that is surprisingly common to all of us here in
the institute! I mean, look at the facts – you ask them
doubts and they’re generally unable to answer you,
you use another method in your exam paper and
he rarely understands what it is all about, you reach
class twenty seconds late and he refuses to mark
your attendance. The TA, soon enough, becomes an
embodiment of everything that is purportedly wrong
with the system – he is dogmatic, sycophantic, low on
intelligence, lower on flexibility and has most of his
skull filled with his ego instead of his brain.
So, you start hating him with all the hate you can
muster. You butter him up so that he would be consid-
erate when you go to him crying for marks later on.
But deep inside, you consider him as one of the lowest
beings on the planet. You’re embarrassed to acknowl-
edge him in public, your sadistic self loves it when you
see him in a spot of bother, you feel elated when the
professor overrules him. You want to see him suffer for
all the unfairness and mediocrity he represents.
To me, TA-hatred became second nature somewhere
along the way. And then, I went over to the other side.
The Dark Side of the…oh chuck it, I’ve grown up
Sometime in my fifth year, without realising its full
scope, I started assisting one of the professors in our
department with bits and parts of a couple of courses.
The first time a kid asked me a doubt, I fumbled. It
wasn’t a pleasant feeling, to be honest. He had asked
me a pretty straightforward question and my mind
had gone blank for an instant. Thankfully, another
TA had come to my rescue. But the first blow had
been inflicted. I realised that I expected the students
to expect me to be the model teacher/helper. I was
supposed to know the entire course like the back of
my hand. I had to answer their probing questions in a
jiffy, lest I be thought of as inadequate, like the legions
of other TAs who had been there before me. There
just wasn’t any room for error. And with the standards
For the uninitiated, a TA is a
teaching assistant to a professor.
TAs teach tutorial classes, grade
assignments, correct exam
papers, man laboratories and
sometimes even make tea and
coffee for their gurus. To put it
mildly, a TA is a professor’s man
Friday of sorts.”
I imagined these kids to have, it was a tricky game. If I
acted too friendly with them, they would want to take
advantage of the equation and would feel alienated
when I won’t give them any in terms of scores and
grades. If I acted too distant then I would be a stooge
of this unfair, dogmatic system of ours.
The first class was nothing short of an ordeal, more so
because I had been told only a few minutes before class
that I was a TA for the course. Things got a bit relaxed
as the classes wore on. I learned how to deal with the
kids’ doubts, even and especially when I could not clear
them. I learned somewhere along the way that it was
okay to admit that I was wrong or that I didn’t know
how to solve a certain problem. Thankfully the negli-
gible bit of significance the kids started attaching to me
did not involve any bit of malice.
In essence, I started seeing
undergraduate students as
indifferent, non-serious and in
some cases, even shameless
punks with no honour code. It
was then that I realised that I had
been on the other side just a few
months back.
Checking exams and assignments was a different deal
altogether. I was somewhat unsettled by the idea of
going through forty different papers. What if someone
used a non-standard approach? What if there were steps
they thought obvious and skipped? How would I tackle
questions with correct answers but wrong approaches
or vice versa? So the first time I checked exam papers I
spent fifteen to twenty minutes on each question, trying
to understand everything the student had done. After
the exercise was repeated a few times over, I realised
that it was not really worth the effort. There were very
clear directives given on what would be given marks and
what would not be given marks. Even with a non-routine
approach, there were things you just could not miss.
The worst parts were the ones wherein the kids
would try to fool you. While cogging from here and
there, they would invariably lose a couple of impor-
tant steps but still have the right answer. Another trick
they would try to pull on you would involve following
Illustration by Regan Raj, IDC
I was supposed to know the
entire course like the back of
my hand. I had to answer their
probing questions in a jiffy, lest
I be thought of as inadequate,
like the legions of other TAs
who had been there before me.
There just wasn’t any room for
error. And with the standards I
imagined these kids to have, it
was a tricky game.
a certain approach up until the second-to-last step,
cause a huge explosion on the penultimate step (cross-
ing out things twice or thrice) and voila! They would
have the correct answer in the end.
There was this one instance where I was supposed to
check assignments submitted online and grade them. It
is a foregone conclusion with most online assignments
that there would be en masse copying, but it really hits
you when the students don’t even bother to change
the name of the file. That is especially an issue when file
names are in the form of roll numbers. The kids didn’t
even bother to change the roll number of someone
else’s assignment to their own before submitting!
In essence, I started seeing undergraduate students
as indifferent, non-serious and in some cases, even
shameless punks with no honour code. It was then
that I realised that I had been on the other side just
a few months back. It was as if I’d spat out of a bus
window at some unknown loser and, by some
time-travel magic, ended up on the receiving end
of that punk’s act. At different points in time, we’ve
all cogged assignments and lab journal reports and
bugged our TAs for marks without any good reason
(and gotten away with it!) Now, on the other side of
the divide, we judge those who copy mindlessly. I
guess it is a part of a never-ending cycle. My mother
sums it up much more cheerfully though – Kyonki Saas
Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi!
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the
author’s and do not necessarily represent those of IIT Bombay
or of Raintree

12
 Raintree October-November-December 2010

RANDom mEANDERINGS
20 Saal Baad SHyAmALA IyER Executive Officer, International Relations Office

T his Diwali, I stepped out for a long walk and cast

my mind back in time to almost two decades ago,
when I became a part of the IITB community by tying
the knot with an alumnus who had come back to serve
his alma mater as a faculty member.

In the early years, I had to travel to Nair hospital where

I worked as physiotherapist and later moved to KEMH
as a lecturer-cum-practitioner. I seemed to have no
time for anything else and life went by in a buzz of
commuting to work and back, for five and a half days
of the week. Given the physically demanding nature of
my profession, the travel was a killer. It barely left me a
day and a half to recover and brace myself for another
round of tug-of-war in the Mumbai locals. Coming
from a small town Baroda, where I would zip around
on a moped and cover the entire city from end to end
within an hour, it was an ordeal to commute by buses,
trains and autos on a daily basis.

The only good things I remember, other than the

professional satisfaction, were the freshest fruits and
vegetables that I could pick up from the vendors near
stations and the occasional snacks and fast food joints,
with their heavenly smells, that I succumbed to on a
regular basis. Most of the time I was dead to the activi-
ties on campus and even MoodI and Techfest could
not tempt me to give up my beauty sleep!

I started discovering the joys of

going for long walks, socialising
with the campus residents,
climbing the hillock behind
Ananta building and other forms
of leisure, not to mention mI and
Techfest, BoNDA productions,
PAFs and all the other activities
on display by students all through
the year.
Management and since then, there has been no looking
back. By the time the project was nearing completion,
a position for Executive Officer in the Office of the Dean
for International Relations was advertised. I moved to
that new job and have been here ever since. Now I truly
don’t need to go anywhere as I get to welcome the
world at our doorstep.
Illustration by Roma Singh, IDC
and say, “Thanks for everything, your inputs have been
most valuable.” Or when students, foreign and our own
that go on exchange visits send a greeting or drop by
to say thanks. Needless to say, it would not be possi-
ble without the vision provided by the Dean and the
extremely efficient support from my office colleagues,
Sandhya and Rajesh. We all work closely as a team.

I even tried driving to work at which point it seemed

that my only goal in life was to hit the expressway,
before the traffic started jamming the roads. A cousin
who visited from USA wryly remarked, “Wow, looks like
you are living the American dream here!”
Eventually, unable to bear the daily toll of commut-
ing, I gave up my teaching-clinical position after much
brain-wracking and emotional yo-yoing, and was
content to spend time at home and explore the IITB
campus. We also made new additions to our family.
And I started discovering the joys of going for long
walks, socialising with the campus residents, climbing
the hillock behind (then non-existent, now debatably
iconic) Ananta building and other forms of leisure,
not to mention the chance to attend MI and Techfest,
the BONDA productions, the PAFs and all the other
activities on display by students all through the year.
Somewhere along the way, we ditched the car and
switched to healthier lifestyle options.
Gradually the kids got into school and I was getting ready
to go back to work, but there was no childcare support on
campus. So when Mrs. Rashmi Misra (Previous Director,
Prof. Ashok Misra’s wife) floated the idea of launching a
play school on campus, I thought I’d pitch in. I put in my
application and went on to be the first supervisor of the
Sishu-Vihar creche. Things took off very well and I had
a great time. The members of the Ladies Club lent their
unstinting support by decorating the creche, making the
place child-friendly and training the caretakers. Our erst-
while PRO, Mrs. Aruna Dixit, would joke during her visits,
“So? How is the shee-soo vihar coming along?”
Then my husband took off on a sabbatical and we
followed (one of the better advantages of being
married to an academic!). When we returned, I joined as
a project staff member when an opportunity presented
itself. Along the way I had picked up a degree in
Foreign delegations want to know
all kinds of things about India, the
IITs and specifically about IITB:
what is the role of IITs in India,
how much of the population do
we serve, what is the gender split
of our students and faculty, why
are there cows on campus?
Our office is usually the first point of contact for
foreign students. We are also one of the external faces
of the institute and need to keep track of everything
that happens on campus, which includes knowing all
kinds of statistics. I learned a lot about the institute
and spent almost the whole first year on the job in
fact-finding, and I still keep discovering some nuggets
about IITB. It’s got to do with visiting foreign delega-
tions wanting to know all kinds of things about India,
Mumbai, the IITs and then specifically about IITB: what
is the role of IITs in India, how much of the popula-
tion do we serve, how much land we have, what is the
gender split of our students and faculty, what is the
source of water for Powai lake, why are there cows on
campus? Once a group asked us why we are so picky
about our students and isn’t it our moral responsibility
to educate everyone and not just a select few. Another
time we were asked whether we have Religious
Teachings for first year students. That was tricky. We
replied that we expected the students’ families to have
imparted those lessons at home; we focused mostly
on their technical training. The delegation leader, a
government official, sportingly retorted, “No wonder
India is doing well. You teach CS 101; in my country
they teach Religion 101.”
Sometimes I wonder what I am doing here, until presi-
dents of world-renowned universities shake my hand
As the name suggests, a major chunk of our work is to
facilitate relationship-building between faculty and
students from foreign universities and the academic
community at IITB. The latter is the most impor-
tant stake-holder of the institute, without which the
institute would not have its premium status. In addi-
tion, we foster relations with governmental agencies,
embassies (externally) and also with the respective
IITB units for academic, administrative and hospital-
ity matters. I especially enjoy the Personnel Training
courses, partly because I get to know the roles differ-
ent people play at the institute, and understand how
our work is interwoven in the larger scheme of things.
When I started working for the institute, I began to
appreciate just how special this place is. You feel like a
part of a big, huge family. Many a times, home and office
activities merge in an almost seamless way. We discuss
institute-related stuff in lifts, on walks, during dinner time
and we chat about our families and personal concerns
in the office or during meetings. Often a person will get
news about a colleague from their spouse or children. It
is not unusual to hear, “Hey! My kid tells me that your kid
told her that you guys are going away next week. I really
wanted you on so-and-so committee!”
I keep getting struck by the
epiphany of what a close-knit
community IITB is, in the most
unimaginable contexts.
Once, I was taking our two kids for a movie and I met
one of my husband’s PhD students at the gate. When
he heard where we were heading, he asked, “But, what
about sir? Isn’t he going?” With a sly grin, I said, “Oh! He
is busy with HIS kids!” The student gave me a surprised
look and then as his bulb lit up, he exclaimed “Oh! You
mean us?!” I said, “Yes!” and he took off in a rush to his
laboratory. We call students over to our home and have
impromptu icecream sessions. The fervour at dandiya

13
Raintree October-November-December 2010
nights and Diwali dinners is interlaced with gentle
reminders of the 10 pm noise limit and decibel levels.
We go for get-togethers, treks, department picnics and
discuss institute policies there. I keep getting struck by
the epiphany of what a close-knit community IITB is, in
the most unimaginable contexts.
As our kids have stabilised in one of the schools on
campus (another big perk of being in IITB), we are
more involved in their scholastic and co-curricular
READER’S CoNTRIBUTIoN
Lambs or Lions?
PRoF. m. V. HARIHARAN Retired Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department
C onnecting the various clusters of ‘dots’ – students,
scholars, faculty, family members, etc. is novel
and laudable. I would like to make highlight another
important pair of clusters which have escaped cover-
age for some time in Raintree – successive Directors
and the institute. I had the good fortune of having had
a ring-side seat for many years during the eras of early-
time Directors and how each one connected to the
institute at large.
Prof. P. K. Kelkar was the founder of the institute, not
the Founder-Director in the formal sense. He first
served as the Planning Officer and then became
Deputy Director. It was expected that he would
become Director. But mandarins in the all-powerful
ministry sent him to Kanpur to plan another IIT there.
He handed over charge to Brigadier S. K. Bose, who
took over as Director sometime in March 1959.
In one of his early addresses to the faculty, Prof. S.
K. Bose made it clear that he would prefer the tag
‘professor’ to that of ‘brigadier’, since in his words, he
had “migrated to the academic field from the battle
field”. Having been a civil engineer with a lot of expe-
rience, Prof. Bose had put all his energy and expertise
in speeding up the construction of various build-
ings of academic departments, the (then) Computer
Centre, the hostels, the Gymkhana and so on. The
long corridor connecting departments was said to be
his brain-child, as he felt that the Mumbai monsoons
should not hinder students going from one lecture
room to another in a different department. His army
training helped him hold contractors in a tight leash
and get them to meet deadlines.
He was also an able administrator, who knew how to
handle problems of students, faculty and other staff.
He could be very strict when the occasion warranted
it; at other times, he would be jovial and friendly. On
Holi in 1962, he sent word to the students’ hostels to
assemble in the Staff Hostel lawn, came there himself
and celebrated the festival with boyish fervour, getting
completely drenched in coloured water. The (then)
First Lady of the campus, Mrs Bose, distributed sweets
to those who visited the Director’s bungalow.
Prof. Bose also took a lot of interest in campus activi-
ties. He helped set-up a variety of cultural societies.
He also gave a helping hand to build a small temple
in the campus. It was his first thought that the presid-
ing deity should be called Devi Shraddha Mata. (That
is how the very first Housing Society opposite Main
Gate bears this name.) Some years later, during some
digging near the lake, a stone was unearthed which
The long corridor connecting
our departments was said to be
Prof. S. K. Bose’s brain-child, as he
felt that the mumbai monsoons
should not hinder students going
from one lecture room to another
in a different department.
14
pursuits. So we have PTA sessions. Our home was
the venue for a music class for an extended period of
time, where even IIT students came to learn vocals. We
coordinate a taekwondo class, a dance class and kids
come in and out of our house at all times of the day,
especially on weekends and holidays. Moreover, as
my commute is now only three minutes, it leaves me
with plenty of time to spend with the family, exercise,
watch movies, read books, plant saplings, learn a new
language and sample some of the stuff students have
had an inscription: Devi Padmavathi.
If I am to compare Prof. S. K. Bose to someone in
the All-India scene, I would say he was our General
Thimmaya, who was famous for his efficiency and disci-
pline and at the same time, would casually walk into the
humble soldiers’ tents to share a cup of tea.
In the meetings with faculty,
Prof. Kelkar’s speeches were
inspirational. He would “show us
the moon” and would want us to
“aim at the stars”. He got things
done by mesmerising the young
faculty with his vision and his
passion to achieve goals.
In May 1969, Prof. S. K. Bose passed on the baton of direc-
torship to Prof. P. K. Kelkar, who had planned our institute
and then founded and nurtured, for two terms, our sister-
institute, IIT Kanpur. The contrast between these two
great men could not be more stark; one was a tower-
ing army man instilling fear and exuding authority; the
other, a mild person with a gentle (but persuasive) voice
and exuding an aura of wisdom. He was also a scholarly
academic himself, with much teaching and academic
experience. I interacted closely with Prof. Kelkar during
his earlier stint in our IIT. He was always gentle. He would
never ask you to do something. He would say, “Don’t you
think it would be nice if we could get it done?”
In the meetings with faculty, his speeches were inspira-
tional. He would “show us the moon” and would want
us to “aim at the stars”. He got things done by mesmeris-
ing the young faculty with his vision and his passion to
achieve goals. He brought about a sea-change in the
structure of our academic administration by instituting
committees at various levels. Democratic to the core,
he ensured that the voice of every faculty member was
heard right up to the highest policy-making body, the
Senate. He abhorred rules on compulsory attendance of
students in classes. He made us realise that poor student
attendance is less of a student-discipline problem than a
poor teaching-technique problem.
I compare Prof. P. K. Kelkar to our former Philosopher-
President, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.
Prof. A. K. De took over in May–June 1974. He was a
“home-grown rose”, a term that Prof. Narayanan of
Electrical Engineering had used to describe alumni who
had made a mark in the national scene by their brilliant
work in our own country. Prof. De had already been in
the IIT fraternity for some years. If we, the faculty, listened
to Prof. Bose for his authority and to Prof. Kelkar for his
wisdom, we listened to Prof. De for his transparent sincer-
ity and his penchant for hard work. He would make it
a point to visit the academic departments often, ask
probing questions about progress and help us de-bottle-
neck our difficulties. I recall an instance when he rolled up
his sleeves, sat with us two evenings in a row and helped
us get rid of old and obsolete equipment, without violat-
ing even one of the myriad rules of the ministry.
on offer all year round. Also, not to mention the rela-
tively cleaner air and lack of noise, though these are
becoming premium even on campus as time goes by.
Over the years I have made several friends here. When I
leave home I seldom stop smiling or chatting, and some-
times a 20-minute outing stretches into an hour. As I lit the
diyas in the evening, I sent up a silent, thankful prayer, and
a wish for many more Diwalis, perhaps a little quieter and
greener ones, to be spent in the lush lap of the institute.
One of the path-breaking measures that Prof. De took
was to make the faculty realise that industry-oriented
research should form an important component of
faculty activity, particularly in the environs of a city like
Mumbai with so many industries around. He brought
to bear his wide experience in industrial research labo-
ratories (CSIR, Defence Research, etc.) on increasing the
interaction between industry and the institute. Such
interaction was formalised by many measures such as
(i) industry-sponsored M.Tech projects, (ii) co-opting
eminent industry leaders in the academic committees
of various departments and (iii) encouraging faculty
members to get involved in consultancy projects in
cutting-edge technology areas.
Prof. De initiated six inter-disciplinary postgraduate
programs in an important meeting of the Senate, chaired
by the Chairman of the Board of Governors, the late Dr.
Raja Ramanna. Such programmes have considerably
encouraged the culture of interdisciplinary research in
the institute.
If we, the faculty, listened to Prof.
Bose for his authority and to Prof.
Kelkar for his wisdom, we listened
to Prof. De for his transparent
sincerity and his penchant for
hard work.
In the interregnum when Prof. De was called to head
Defense Research, Prof. R. E. Bedford worked as Acting
Director for a few months. Prof. Bedford, a respected
senior professor in the Electrical Engineering
department was not only a learned academic, but
also popular among students. Many in Electrical
Engineering were inspired by his teaching and
research abilities. He was the quintessence of modera-
tion, which is why the department leaned heavily
on him whenever opposing points of view had to be
reconciled. As a senior professor in the institute, he
had chaired and guided what was at that time a radical
re-organisation of the very structure of our academic
SALT’ N PEPPER
PRoF. ARUN INAmDAR

administration. He also had a very good sense of
humour and had excellent communication abilities.
If compare Prof. Bedford to our former Prime Minister
Shri I. K. Gujral.
Prof. B. Nag, who took over from Prof. A. K. De in June–
July 1984, was undoubtedly the Rajiv Gandhi of our
campus. The late Prime Minister brought about a tele-
communication revolution at the national level; the
late Prof. Nag brought about a computer revolution
at the campus level. He resolved the decades-old
sore point of IITB not having a large, modern, high-
speed computer. By virtue of his experience in Delhi as
Secretary, DOE, Government of India, he knew exactly
how files moved from table to table in the miles-long
corridors of the ministry.
The fact is Prof. Nag played an important role in getting
a large computer for the institute. Prof. Nag was also
able to accelerate other computer-centred projects
because of his experience in Delhi. The Computer-Aided
Design Center (CAD) and the SAMEER infrastructure are
some good examples. No doubt, a lot of preparatory
work had already been accomplished during the years
earlier to his arrival; but Prof. Nag was able to clinch
these issues successfully.
READER’S CoNTRIBUTIoN
READER’S CoRNER
To All my Children
December 8th 2010
Dear Roshni, Lucky, Lawson and Mini,
It has been six months since you came to us, Mini. June
8th, my fifth child is here, a big day for us. The name Mini
suits you. You are so small, pretty and so lively. Lawson
is possessive and feeling a bit jealous of you since your
Mamma and Papa are looking out for your needs more
than those of his. Don’t fight with him. You jump up on
us and take your snuggles, hugs and baby talk. Lawson
tries to copy you. Only, when he jumps up he promptly
falls down. It is so hilarious to watch him.
About a year back, June 9th, 2009 in fact, Mobi, your
sister, left us to go be with God. I feel she has become
an angel and is most likely gracing God with the smiles
that never failed to warm my heart. All of us miss her
terribly. I remember her passing away with me holding
her hand, stroking her head and your father weeping
inconsolably. Having no prior experience in dealing
with the departed, I followed Chandrabai’s advice to
prepare and serve her meals as usual and keep a lamp
lit for 3 days. On the chautha we buried her ashes in
Photograph by Rangoli Garg, IDC
From left to right: Mini Krishna, Lucky Krishna, Mobi Krishna, Lawson Krishna and Roshni Krishna
Prof. S. P. Sukhatme took over from Prof. B. Nag in August
1994. A second home-grown rose, as fragrant as the
first. If the institute activities were growing (in quantity
and quality) at the pace of an SUV in Prof. A. K. De’s time,
they were growing at the pace of a commercial airliner
during the time of Prof. B. Nag. During Prof. Sukhatme’s
time, they were vrooming at the pace of a supersonic
fighter aircraft. Every measurable parameter increased
by an order of magnitude; be it the faculty recruitment,
the increased student and research scholar intake, the
number of new specialisations, the buildings for the
new sophisticated facilities, the new types of interdisci-
plinary activities, etc.
Many of the new activities were made possible
because of the bountiful contributions of our alumni.
Prof. Sukhatme had the Midas touch; whomever he
If the institute activities were
growing (in quantity and quality)
at the pace of an SUV in Prof. A.
K. De’s time, at Prof. Sukhatme’s
time, they were vrooming at
the pace of a supersonic fighter
aircraft.
SHyAmA IyER Campus Resident
the garden. A money plant was planted on that spot
and today you can see it growing happily, a reminder
of Mobi’s spirit as she coped with her illness and pain.
Do you recall, we felt her presence in the house for
close to two months? And on August 5th, 2009 Lawson
came to us, a brother for you, Roshu – your Raksha
Bandhan gift. Lawson adjusted to the house and
family very quickly and was playing with you soon.
From day one, he decided to trouble Daddy the most.
He still insists on cuddling up with Murali and bother-
ing him at night. I secretly think Murali only pretends
to get irritated and will not have it any other way.
Lucky dearest, you were so perturbed when Lawson
came. After all, you were Roshu’s first sibling. You
fussed over your meals and were petulant for so
long. We were deeply concerned and on the doctor’s
recommendation, gave you lots of extra attention. Of
course, in a week you were back to your usual impor-
tant self. I think only then Mobi’s spirit left our house.
Mamma is working now. Lucky and Lawson, you miss
your mid-morning timepass when we would go into
Raintree October-November-December 2010
contacted, that alumnus loosened his or her purse
strings and dollars poured in into the institute’s corpus
fund. The generous alumni contribution was as much
to the credit of alumni themselves, along with the lead-
ership provided at that time by the Bhatnagar Prize
awardee and Padma Shree Director, Prof. Sukhatme.
I retired a month before Prof. Sukhatme took charge
as Director. But I did have the good fortune of interact-
ing with him for many years in various academic and
other activities. I had observed similarity between the
two former Directors, Prof. De and Prof. Sukhatme.
Both were highly rated academicians with impeccable
academic records. Both had admirable administrative
abilities. Both had endeared themselves to all sections
of the campus community – students, faculty and other
supporting staff. For both of them, recognition of a high
order continued even after retirement as they were hand-
picked for chairing the nationally important and sensitive
Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
Admittedly, both of them are like Napoleon Bonaparte
in physical appearance. But, in achievements and acco-
lades, they stand tall, like Charles De-Gaulle. They are
the Abdul Kalams of IITB.
the garden and play, or walk over to see the cement
gaadis mix the cement. Lucky, how you like to watch
the construction activities happening on campus. I
must make up for what you are missing. Today, we will
all play your favourite ‘bhaji market’ or ‘garage-garage’
in the evening.
And finally Roshni, you will not be happy and go to
sleep at night till I tell you all of your bedtime stories,
from my childhood and yours. You are a young lady
now, right? But for us you will always be remembered
as our nanhi pari (little fairy). We feel we pamper all of
you a bit too much but this is the only way we know
how to raise you. After all, you are only guests in our
house. You will all move on in your own ways and will
have left us one by one. So, no matter what, today we
will enjoy your presence tremendously and bask in the
joy that your masti (fun) brings to us.
Thank you so much for coming into my life.
With all my love,
Mamma
15
Raintree October-November-December 2010
VIEwS
In the Thick of Things
ASHwATH KIRTHyVASAN Fifth Year Undergraduate, Department of Aerospace Engineering
I f student-faculty interaction is touted to be minimal
and unsatisfactory, staff-student interaction is abysmal
and almost non-existent. In an effort to change this situ-
ation and draw our readers’ attention to the immense,
behind-the-scenes work that our staff members do,
I spoke to Mrs. Shanta Sreeraman about her job, her
experience of being on campus and her changing
perceptions of the students who populate IIT Bombay.
Mrs. Shanta Sreeraman is Personal Assistant to Prof.
Gopalan, Dean of Student Affairs, and has been in
this position for every Dean of Student Affairs in the
past 30 years. Extremely unassuming, soft-spoken yet
well-informed about the happenings in the institute,
she spoke on the transformation that IITB has been
through in the years that she’s been here.
She narrates a long, fascinating and intricate story
about how things have changed in the past three
decades. The first anecdote is about the establish-
ment of the Dean of Student Affairs (DoSA) office.
Before 1978-79, the position of a Dean to look after the
affairs of students did not exist. In order to bring all
student activities under one administration, this office
was established. Many a student back in the 80s spent
10 years in IIT to complete his or her degree. Such a
lifestyle eventually became a burden for the system.
Rules had to be formed to govern the academic and
the non-academic aspects of students’ lives.
She narrates that the students back then were much
more united for a cause. There wasn’t as much of a
UG-PG divide as it exists now, and all the students
THE UPSIDE oF DowN
walking makes me Happy
I n the 1980s, the British rock-n-roll band Police sang
“Giant steps are what you take walking on the moon/
We could walk forever walking on the moon”. They could
well have been singing about walking on IITB campus,
since walking is surely one of the great pleasures of our
campus life. Progressively, the steps that one can take on
campus are less than “giant”, as it gets crowded, espe-
cially with vehicles and construction. Car parks and
concrete structures sprout out of nowhere, as grown-ups
play at being town planners and landscape designers
for this campus with relative impunity. But still, walking
on campus is a joy - the wooded Soneri Baug route,
running into the occasional mongoose, climbing the hill
behind Ananta, the lake-front walk and watching cormo-
rants, kingfishers and other waterbirds, memories of the
Pipeline road and the Vihar area when it was accessible
from campus. The same walks appear different depend-
ing on the season, with monsoons surely bringing the
most dramatic of all changes. The winter haze around the
streetlights, framed by trees on the hostel route in late
December nights can bring out the romance in some of
the most hardened.
Sometime back, Raintree carried an opinion piece titled,
“Why am I in IIT?”, where the author opined that “helping
consummate the dream of a lively public institution, with
meaningful public scholarship” was what was important
to him. This set me, Prof. Happy Ahluwalia, also think-
ing. But for me, and surely for some others, one of the
important reasons behind being here could be slightly
more prosaic: like maybe the good fortune to be able
to walk to my workplace through relatively pleasant
surroundings. In fact, one feels blessed that in the five
places (spanning four countries) that one has worked
in (or attended graduate school), one has had the good
fortune to either walk, or at least cycle to the workplace.
But I do not think this is an accident.
Henry David Thoreau, in his delightful book simply
titled, Walking put it as “It comes only by grace of God. It
requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become
a walker. You must be born into the family of walkers...”
Thoreau, probably the greatest of men, in his eulogy to
walking further goes on to say, “ …but the walking of
16
coexisted in relative peace. Every hostel had one mature
senior student or PhD student who would come forward
to solve problems. Although the times seem rosier, she
reminds me of the menace – ragging – that plagued IIT.
Ragging was a rage and a few students also faced harsh
punishments. It was around mid-1990 that freshmen
started being allotted hostels 2, 3 and 4 in their first year
and this rule has continued ever since (except in 2004,
when the authorities gave into the requests of students
and distributed freshies across hostels.)
She attributes that if there is a decline in student–faculty
interaction, it could be due to students being exempted
from meeting their professors to finalise their semester
registrations. This used to be mandatory for all students,
she says. Now, the entire process is online. Also, sizes of
the batches were much smaller as compared to present
times. This meant that the faculty knew their students
personally and helped them whenever necessary. When
a student was performing poorly, his parents would
be called to the institute to meet with the faculty and
discuss solutions to resolve the issues.
One of the biggest concerns she expressed was the
reducing interaction between students themselves. Mrs.
Shanta considers computers to be a big hindrance and
feels that this technology has single-handedly reduced
the amount of time students spend interacting with
each other. Earlier, the Gymkhana would be filled with
people and activity while now it presents a dull and quiet
state. Students are too involved with their personal lives.
This, coupled with the increasing immaturity of students
coming into the institute has presented a plethora of
which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise,
as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours –
as the swinging of dumbbells or chairs; but is itself the
adventure and enterprise of the day”. This gentle sage
lived in 19th century America, and had little idea how
lesser men after him would turn his country into a civilisa-
tion of obese people, driving gas-guzzling SUVs, and that
wars would be fought to preserve this lifestyle. Obviously,
suburban living, lack of well-planned public transport,
ready and cheap ownership of private automobiles, the
greed of the automobile industry along with the usual
suspects like fast food, corporate greed, advertising, etc.
also contributed to this decline.
A not very dissimilar story is being played out here in
middle-class India. But coming back to IITB, there is
something which puzzles me, Happy Ahluwalia, to no
end. Given that, we on the campus, live in a verdant oasis
in one of the world’s most polluted cities; given that
most faculty members are pushing middle age or where-
abouts; given everything that medical science tells us
Sizes of the batches were much
smaller as compared to present
times. This meant that the
faculty knew their students
personally and helped them
whenever necessary.
unseen problems for the administration, she says. Rising
incidents of alcohol abuse, misuse of freedom and the
utter lack of respect for faculty from the students has left
the authorities puzzled.
She categorically states that there were problems in
the past too, but the rising intake of students and their
increased exposure to various influences have led to
many problems.
Not too many professors are keen on becoming the
DoSA, considering its job profile. It demands a lot of
time and patience to attend to the problems relat-
ing to students. It’s an ungrateful job; do it well and
students blame you for over-regulation; don’t do it
well and you still face brickbats.
As a member of staff, Mrs. Shanta has been as much
of an observer as she has been a player in workings
of the campus. She has seen the nature of interac-
tions change even as she played her part silently and
with a great sense of pride. She loves the campus, she
concludes, and will continue to work in IITB.
PRoF. H. AHLUwALIA
Illustration by Ankita Roy, IDC
about the fickleness of the South Asian heart (and sundry
other organs); given that we do not allow our students to
own and operate private, motorised vehicles; given that
the workplace is a maximum 15 minute walk through
relatively pleasant surroundings.. Given all this, why do
supposedly intelligent faculty members in IITB routinely
drive to work?
Some years back, the famous German physicist Dr. Walter
Mitty who had also spent time at the institute as a visit-
ing professor, was asked what he would ask God given the
opportunity. The great physicist replied: “ When I meet
God, I am going to ask him three questions: Why relativity?
Why turbulence? And why do so many supposedly intel-
ligent faculty members at IITB routinely drive to work? I
really believe he will have an answer to the first two.”
1. Adaptation of a story variously attributed to the German theo-
retical physicist Werner Heisenberg and English mathematician
Horace Lamb (with quantum electrodynamics instead
of relativity).
 Raintree October-November-December 2010

READER’S CoNTRIBUTIoN
From the Driver’s Seat jyoTI CHEDE Former Campus Resident

I was driving around in our campus on a lovely

December morning. I wanted to do some shop-
ping. We IIT ladies (sometimes gentlemen too) have
a ritual — we park the car near the gate, shop around
the market, dump the bags in the car’s back-seat and
drive back home. As per the routine, I finished my
shopping spree and was about to start my car. Our
Security Officer Mr. Koli stopped me, came by my car
window and said, “Are you going back home? This
person wants to go to Tulsi Building. Since it is on your
way home, can you please drop him? He is visiting the
campus for the first time. He is also new to Powai.”

“Oh, sure,” I replied.

He turned to the man and said, “Get in. She will drop you.”
I opened the door.
“He is a police inspector and has to do some minor
enquiries related to someone’s passport in Tulsi
Building,” said the officer.
“Oh.” I couldn’t say anything more as he was already
inside the car.
“Thanks,” said the police inspector.
I noticed a softness and humility in his voice.
“That’s okay. I am going towards that side only.”

He was an innocent-faced, young person. It was hard

to believe that he was in the Police Department, given
the kind of things we hear about the police and the
kind of opinions we have of policemen. For a while,
there was silence in the car.

“I was posted in this Police Station recently. I am new
to this city.”
I just listened.
“Your campus is very beautiful; it is surrounded by
small hillocks, lots of greenery and… just so many
shades of green. It is such a surprise.” he said.
I didn’t know what was making
me uncomfortable: the fact
that he was a policeman, or the
fact that he was a young, mild-
mannered policeman.
I didn’t know what was making me uncomfortable: the
fact that he was a policeman, or the fact that he was a
young, mild-mannered policeman.
“I have to collect some photocopies from the shop. It will
take me five minutes. Can you wait?” I asked him. I hoped
he would want to go for his errand as soon as possible
and my detour would make him leave. But to my disap-
pointment, he replied, “No problem. I will wait.”
I wanted a few photocopies of my students’ draw-
ings. I loitered away more time than required at the
photocopy shop, hoping the policeman would get
bored and leave. But no, when I came back I saw him
sifting through some blank papers and a few remain-
ing drawings.
“Sorry madam, what is this?” he asked as I sat in the car.
“Today we had a painting competition for some chil-
dren. Those are my students’ drawings.”
He picked up the pile of papers and started looking
through the paintings. I observed him from the corner
of my eye. He picked up a pencil and some plain papers.
He was lost in his thoughts. He was touching the pencil
in a way that reminded me of artists who laid their
hands on their instruments before starting to play.
“Can you please stop the car?” He asked. His voice had
changed; it sounded as if it was coming from a deep
valley. I did as he asked.
What was he going to do?
He looked at me and started working on a piece of
Illustration by Regan Raj, IDC
sketch of myself, complete with minute details includ- stopped the car. He handed me a pile of papers. He
ing the steering wheel, the trees in the background, on had filled the papers with beautiful strokes; the whole
the paper he was working on. campus appeared on paper. A boy on a cycle with his
school bag on his shoulders, teenage girls chatting
“Wonderful.” I managed to utter, in complete surprise. merrily, a professor walking, lost in thought, a mother
cow licking its infant, shades of greens, blue and
“I am sorry, these drawings, pencils, papers and the brown, trees on both sides of the road.
beautiful nature… I just couldn’t resist. I love painting. “This is beautiful!” I exclaimed, surprise writ large on
I have a passion for painting, drawing and all types
of arts. I was very good in arts, I wanted to become
my face. “When did you draw all this?”
“You were busy driving. These marvellous hillocks, the
an artist but my father died in a firing encounter with beautiful nature inspired me. I could not stop myself
terrorists, and my world changed. The responsibility from drawing it. I am sorry. Please forgive me.”
of my family came on my shoulders. I had to join the “Forgive you?” I asked and thought to myself, first I have
police force. I got a job in place of my father. It was to forgive myself for harbouring wrong prejudices.
very hard for me, but I buried my passions and tried to “Thanks for the lift,” he said, as he got out of the car.
adjust to my new life. I succeeded to some extent but
when I saw all this beauty,” he signalled to the trees There was an eerie silence. Suddenly I raised my hand
with his hands, “I couldn’t stop myself from sketching. towards him. He hesitantly moved his hand forward. I
But I know I can’t afford to be in my dream world.’’ He could see the surprise in his eyes. I held his hand and
stopped abruptly. said, “This hand is not meant for holding rifles. God has
created this hand for handling pencils, brushes and
“Kya kare, hamara sampark acche logon se kam hi hota the canvas.”
hai. Hamesha hamara paala chor-gundo ke saath hi padta
hai (What can we do, we don’t come into contact with I let go of his hand and started the car in a hurry. His
good people too often. We’re always with criminals). eyes were moist as were mine. Later, I realised that I
Even during my sister’s marriage I had to be on-duty had forgotten to ask his name.
because of riots…” he stopped abruptly again.
I was stunned.
Why do we hold prejudices against particular profes-
sions? Most of us cannot think of policemen without
their uniforms, or in different roles. Just while ago, I
was hoping to get rid of this gentleman. Now, I was
feeling terribly ashamed of myself for thinking that
way. Can we imagine a policeman weeping on his
sister’s bidai? Or cuddling a small baby? Or singing
Raga Jaijaivanti?
why do we hold prejudices
against particular professions?
most of us cannot think of
policemen without their uniforms,
or in different roles.
I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that the car
slowed down without my intervention and I took a Photograph by C. P. Joglekar

paper. I was baffled. Within a few minutes, I found a much longer route to Tulsi. We reached Tulsi and I

17
Raintree October-November-December 2010

HIDDEN CoRNER
A Lesser Known Landmark
TARUN REDDy, Third Year Undergraduate Department of Civil Engineering

M y first affiliation with NCC was in my freshie year.

Till then, I had never heard of something like it,
not in an institute like IIT. When I came to know that
the National Cadet Corps was under Indian military
authority, my stomach churned a bit. I was appre-
hensive of the army’s fabled asperity. But like most
students on campus, I succumbed to the myth of
NCC being irrelevant; just another compulsory course
which I had to take up. As a campus resident who had
finished the course, my old opinion about the NCC
puzzles me. How wrong I have been.

Every day we walk past the NCC gate. Yet very few
of us have ever bothered to walk through it. What
is worse is that fewer of us know about the people
living there. For some of us, it’s a dilapidated house
with rickety furniture, cob-webbed walls. Maybe for a
wandering, retired military serviceman, it is a haven.
Surprise! Reality is different.

Though sequestered from most campus residents,

NCC is one of the few active groups on the campus.
NCC has representatives from both IITB and the army.
They work collaboratively to make it function as effi-
ciently as possible. NCC thrives among people who
know it; it does not advertise itself like other student
groups. They have their own share of camps and trips
for students of IITB and KV who annually register for
them, apart from weekend sessions. Camps acquaint
students with difficult situations and how to deal
with them. They endure gruelling sessions of fitness,
exercise regimes, etc. Trips like para-gliding and rifle
shooting are more about adventure. Men here serve
the army. So, they are actively involved in military Photograph by Rangoli Garg, IDC

camps held in the vicinity of Mumbai during week-

days. As a freshie, what I liked best about the NCC
experience is when they taught us how to shoot a gun.
It is every child’s dream at one point or another to try
something like this. Here at NCC, the right guidance
and space is provided to try it. It is liberating to shoot
frustrations out through a revolver.
As its status is today, NCC is a mere landmark guide-
line for most of us. It’s an incongruous part of IITB to
residents. As students, we don’t find the motivation
in us to know the world on the other side of the gate.
This kind of estrangement is formed by our hackneyed
perception of people on the other side, their values
and their social, day-to-day life.
In writing this article, I met a few of those people
again. Luckily, Mr. Manmohan Singh (not the famous
blue turban guy), who has been working as an
As a freshie, what I liked best
about the NCC experience is
when they taught us how to
shoot a gun. Here at NCC, the
right guidance and space is
administrator at NCC since last year (and prior to it as
an employee at IITB) was available. Having been part
of IITB and also of NCC, Mr. Singh was the ideal person
for gathering a perspective on the lifestyles of people
who work here.
who says life in the army isn’t
lively? They too have their own
share of escapades and they
aren’t constrained to classes. At
the end of day, rules are there
to broken – be it in IITB or in the
army.
Our discussion began with army life being widely
perceived to be dull and way too disciplined. To which
he indignantly replied, “One shouldn’t be dismayed
at the thought leading a disciplined life. Discipline is
paramount for climbing the ladder to success.” Later he
added in a spicy tone, “Who says life in the army isn’t
lively? They too have their own share of escapades and
they aren’t constrained to classes. At the end of day,
rules are there to broken – be it in IITB or in the army.”
opportunity to explore different fields that we find
a liking for. We indulge in manifold activities such as
GRA, dramatics, sports, etc. Somehow, NCC is the only
activity that never makes it to the preferred list of most
students. It’s been stained with arduousness. And this
stain is easily caught on when a freshie joins IIT.
Most people think that the norms and values of
NCC somehow don’t suit their way of life here. Most
students, after having prepared so assiduously for the
JEE perceive leading a disciplined life to be dull and
limited. We would rather not listen to authority figures.
Hence, we jump on every opportunity to undermine
the authority of faculty and their wisdom.
That apart, I have realised that although we restrain
ourselves here in IIT, we aren’t constrained. We have
built imaginary boundaries all around us and we
restrict our mobility within close quarters. We need
to break out of these walls and interact with people
who may not agree with our views. We rather brazenly
carry forward our prejudices. It’s time to rule out
preconceptions which confine us. And certainly a walk
on that side of the gate would help us in making this
place a better one.

provided to try it. It is liberating to
shoot frustrations out through a
revolver.
Photograph by Rangoli Garg, IDC
We bantered about the situations of students at both
institutions. “Sir, at IIT we believe that the campus life-
style gives us the freedom to venture into different
fields. Yet, at the same time it is hectic and stressful.
A student also crafts his/her life on his/her own terms
and conditions. Is it same in the army?”
He replied, “That definitely isn’t the case with the army.
But, the modus operandi of the army as an institution is
to provide training for harsh situations, to craft a daily
schedule of students based on the requirements of
others. In the army, one respects and admires seniors
and we know that everyone is a friend.” He finished with
pompous flare. “‘We’ precedes ‘I’ here. We are not very
ambitious for a lavish lifestyle. Is it the same with you?”
Through my conversation with him, a handful of
my myths were broken. Ever since that happened, I
have been pondering about them. IITB provides the
Here in IIT, we have built
imaginary boundaries all around
us and we restrict our mobility
within close quarters. we need
to break out of these walls and
interact with people who may not
agree with our views.
After a minute of silence, Mr. Singh cheerfully said, “In
hindsight, both these government institutions have
been built with an objective of serving the country
and they have their own methodologies for doing the
same. Adhering to the interests of the nation would be
sufficient, rather than comparing the pros and cons of
these two diverse institutions.” This was the apogee
to my fruitful and enlightening interaction with Mr.
Manmohan Singh.

18

oPINIoN
Swinging the Tightrope
W hen the first brainstorming sessions on Raintree’s
theme began, I fell prey to RHS and chose “gender
divide on campus”. What is RHS, you ask. A friend
describes it as the Right Hand Syndrome – the tendency
to impulsively raise your right hand and swear initiative
for anything. And reconsider later. I thought to myself,
“What was I thinking, choosing a topic like that?” It’s
something so obvious! Freshies and alumni could break
ice over this. Everything that had to be said, written,
sung has been said, written and sung.
But I have a different perspective because I grew up
in IIT: I didn’t study here. During school, my interac-
tion with the institute students was quite scant. A few
odd times they would come home, I would notice that
every chair, table and horizontal surface which could
accommodate this sudden population increase was
dominated by guys. Even these ‘homely’ celebrations
would encounter some absentees so I was never really
exposed to the true numbers. During these soirees,
the girl/s would almost always come and her presence
would make the dis-balance be felt more keenly. My
discomfort lasted only for a while till the students began
opening up, and after they left it was all forgotten.
It was during high school when some friends of mine
began preparing for JEE that IIT became much more
than just an address. The results came in, and some of
them got admission right here! Suddenly, IIT was a whole
new ballgame. I was privy to first-hand accounts of terri-
ble rooms, terrifying professors, 48 hour nightouts, the
intense competition and the immense variety of enter-
tainment loosely labelled as ‘non-academic pursuits.’
(I must warn you, this is a gist of conversations my IIT
friends and I had in their first year.) Everything was in
the extreme – the bad food, the incredible prof, the
slimy senior, and even – the huge swimming pool.
Over the years, many perspectives changed, emotions
were tempered but one obstinate crib remained:
“there are just no women!” Although I was always
BHAVINI PANT Campus Resident
ready to rubbish their earlier grumbles with a reason-
able counter-argument, I conceded empathetically
to this one. The reason was simple. Over the months,
I had crossed the shore from the school and residen-
tial area to the hostel, department and SAC area. The
one experience that I shared with my IIT friends: there
really were very few women.
what must a girl feel when she
enters a class of 50 guys? How
does she deal with the sudden
attention, the initial alienation?
How does she talk freely
without being singled out?
women face these situations
anyway, if they decide to go
alone for a movie or a lunch.
It was interesting to see the subtle changes in behav-
iour that this inequality brought on in the guys. Here’s
a story. Once a friend (from the institute) and I, were
out walking on the campus. We were talking anima-
tedly about our school and teachers when suddenly
from a distance, a horde of guys wearing small number-
banners came running doggedly in our direction. They
were running the crossee. My friend lowered his voice
conspiratorially and said, “Okay, here’s what we’re
going to do. I’m going to walk off and disappear till
these guys pass by. You keep walking ahead normally.
Keep in touch on the phone. Once they’re gone, I’ll join
you. Go!” Just like that, I was in a Jason Bourne movie,
except that instead of amnesia, I was truly clueless. It
was lots of fun, and when the runners had passed me
by my friend joined me as smoothly from nowhere.
“I’m sorry for ditching you like that,” he explained later.
“Some of those guys were my seniors. Had they seen
me with you, I would have been *beep* in my hostel.”
I was pretty amused (and in a tiny corner in my head,
flattered) by the far-reaching consequences of my
During school, my interaction
with students was quite scant. A
few odd times they would come
home, I would notice that every
chair, table and horizontal surface
which could accommodate this
sudden population increase was
dominated by guys.
Raintree October-November-December 2010
presence. Did it really matter that much?
Looking at my friend’s reaction, it did. I could have had a
good time fanning those flames of vanity, but the truth
is that it wasn’t really as gratifying. It’s not who I am that
causes such a flutter, it’s what I am. That really isn’t an
achievement I can be credited with. Having survived
the initial pressure-cooker years, my friend is quite blasé
about runners now, or other guys we may meet while
walking. Is it also because being a senior means you
finally have the freedom to be who you are? I wonder.
Fewness breeds fascination. Once, some campus
friends and I were out on Holi to meet a school friend
at his hostel. Crowd after Neanderthal crowd of men
dressed in rags roamed recklessly, beating vessels,
smeared with paint and mass-grunting periodically.
A group of three approached us and requested to
take a picture with us. I meekly asked them why. They
replied, “We just want a picture with some girls.” The
situation was so ridiculous, we burst out laughing!
Hilarity aside, sometimes the numbers scare me. What
must a girl feel when she enters a class of 50 guys?
How does she deal with the sudden attention, the
initial alienation, the pressure of constantly being
watched? How does she be herself, talk freely without
worrying about being singled out? Women face these
situations anyway, if they decide to go alone for a
movie or a lunch. But IIT’s microcosmic nature makes
the gender divide much more acute than it is outside.
Companionship and curiosity
are two among the biggest
drives behind human behaviour.
They stand like two ends of the
social tight-rope that students
walk on here.
I happened to experience the gender divide myself,
when I joined a women’s college. The three guys in
college (we were co-ed at the M.Sc level) would never
go anywhere unaccompanied by their entire gang.
“The eyes have it”, they say. Even if you are not talked
about, the sheer quantity of people watching you can
have a dizzying, often nervous effect. Of course, the
mood was considerably brighter, and the hormones
lighter when we had our college festival. That happens
here too during Mood I, irrespective of gender.
I asked students from both sides what they felt about
it. Generalisations were swept either ways: ‘’The girls
love the attention, it flatters their ego. They become
even harder to approach,’’ said the guys. ‘’We know
we’re constantly being watched, and when not being
watched, being dissected or judged. It doesn’t make
for great first conversations,’’ said the girls. (Though I
suppose this watch-dissect-judge process works both
ways.) Beware: I spoke to three guys and two women,
practically strangling every logical rule of statistical
representation. So, how do the women feel about the
men feel about the women, and so on?
The only way to find answers is by an open dialogue.
Knowing the bohemian nature of “non-academic
pursuits” here, I’m sure something similar may have
already happened. Companionship and curiosity are
two among the biggest drives behind human behav-
iour. They stand like two ends of the social tight-rope
that students walk on. How do we turn this into a
happy, friendly jumping-castle? Will it change only
when boys equal girls numerically?
Start that conversation today.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the
author’s and do not necessarily represent those of IIT Bombay
or of Raintree
19
Raintree October-November-December 2010

oPINIoN
Invisible Lines
SUmAN RAo First Year Undergraduate, Department of Metallurgy and Material Sciences

F or a place envied to be like a microcosm of our

country, the unexplored contours that exist among
its denizens make for interesting observations. Your
senses gratefully inhale a change the moment you
enter the palm-lined avenues of the campus. Soon,
you see people of various accents and hues strolling
around IITB’s bejeweled setting.

As an 18-year old queuing outside the JEE office

(a surprisingly nondescript one for all the hoopla,
observes a freshie mind) for post- result counselling,
I was awed by what I had signed up for and excited at
the prospect of living, studying and playing among
the best from across the nation – very literally. I and
881 more of my ilk arrived a fortnight later, hoping to
stay in a plural campus. But we soon found out that
this was not to be for a year.

Apologists find faults in certain

traits of the students they use
such slang for. They accuse them
of having ‘superior airs due to
higher AIRs’ and criticise them
for not making any effort to
bond with students from other
cultures. Critics point towards the Illustration by Jim Mathew Kochitty
intolerance and isolation they
suffer, which in turn is responsible As an 18-year old queuing outside At the end of the first year, rooms are re-allotted and this
time, randomly. Chunks of rooms are taken together and
for the lack of engagement in the the jEE office (a surprisingly allocated to a hostel. Rooms 1–6 in a freshmen hostel
first place. nondescript one for all the may be allocated to Hostel 8, Rooms 7–12 are allocated to
Hostel 9, etc. lending a level of heterogeneity. The allo-
The IITB hostel allocation for its youngest charges
hoopla, observes a freshie mind) cation is more flexible, making exchange of rooms easy.
follows rules separate from those for later years. for post- result counselling, I was And thus in our second year, we will begin a vibrant stay in
Allocation is done JEE centre-wise, so unintention- awed by what I had signed up IITB… plural as hoped, with easy camaraderie to boot.
ally (maybe unwittingly?), all birds of the same feather
flock together, even among the first years. I found only
for and excited at the prospect Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the
Gujaratis and Marathis in my wing. Elsewhere one found of living, studying and playing author’s and do not necessarily represent those of IIT Bombay
South Indian wings, which were a cacophony of tongue among the best from across the or of Raintree
twisters. I marvelled at their wings which were the best
organised and most polite, a character brought out by
nation – very literally.
oBITUARIES
the virtue of relativity; adjacent to them were the North this island city, must be efficiently directed by a ghaati.
Indian wings, which put on their sweetest Hindi to an If ghaatis who are capable of suggesting the perfect
outsider but cussed amongst themselves with abandon. BEST bus number are greatly admired, ghaatis who actu- Shri Babu D. Varak
ally suggest the perfectly priced and fun places to hang Senior messenger, PPR Section
Each regional block has its own characteristic traits. For out and kill time are the hostel darlings. Two, it is their Shri Babu D. Varak passed
example, you cannot but notice how the Mumbaikars, oxymoronic ‘voluntary duty’ to bring back food from away on 5th December, 2010.
affectionately known as ghaatis, have almost taken a their homes every weekend. He was 52 years old. Shri
policy decision: “Thou shalt bathe only in the comfort Varak was working as a Senior
of thy home”, making baths a weekly affair. Coupled Pro bono work you may call it, but dereliction of duty Messenger in PPR Section,
with their hardening belief that the campus offers will get your ass kicked, in every literal sense. The where he spent the entire
much more to engross them during weekends than gusto with which a wing descends on an unpopular tenure of his service at IIT
their cozy homes, the lack of their weekly ablutions, wing member’s unfortunate birthday (to lash at his Bombay. He joined in 1980.
well, wafts along! Blessed are the shops in hostels helpless backside with Paragons, shoes and some- Despite being physically challenged (he needed the
having ghaatis, for the bottles of deodorants disap- times studs), on occasion manages to surpass even the support of crutches), Shri Varak carried out his duties
pear faster than the frankies in the canteen next door. enthusiasm shown on a rare female sighting. admirably and was usually the first one to come to
Not so accommodating or inclusive is the treatment work. Being senior-most, he knew the Main Building
The boosted sales of deodorants and mints are not the meted out to South Indians, who travel miles to reach and its inhabitants well and guided the younger team
only credit that ghaatis receive. They also enjoy the status these hallowed precincts. Given the sweeping tag of at the PPR section. He had a calming presence and a
of being fashion trendsetters – the campus undergradu- gulti (most likely originating from an inversion of the smiling personality. His present and previous colleagues
ate dress code of tees and three-fourths is credited to syllables in te-lu-gu), their weak command over Hindi remember him as a very amiable and cordial person. He
them. And yes, their twin duties ahead of all others: one, puts them in stark contrast and isolates them from the will be missed by both his family and colleagues. May
they are the de-facto concierges of the whole wing. Any rest of the campus’ populace, which converses mostly his soul rest in peace.
person in the hostel, desirous of reaching anywhere in in the national tongue. Freshies use the term gulti in
whispers amongst themselves while seniors call out the Prof. m.C. Srisailam (retd.)
The IITB hostel allocation for its term aloud. The edge with which the term is belted out Department of Electrical Engineering
renders it more demeaning than other racial slangs, such Prof. M.C. Srisailam, who was 72 years old passed
youngest charges follows rules as ‘bong’ or ‘sardar’, which find widespread acceptance. away on 7th October, 2010. Prof. Srisailam, a
separate from those for later retired professor of Electrical Engineering had
years. Allocation is done jEE Apologists find faults in certain traits of the students they
use such slang for. They point towards a ‘disenchantment
coached and guided innumerable undergraduate,
postgraduate and PhD students during his tenure
centre-wise, so unintentionally to cutlery’ among these students, which they find offen- at IITB, which spanned more than 35 years. From
(maybe unwittingly?), all birds of sive, and refuse to dine on ‘gulti tables’. They accuse them his colleagues, who spent time with him during
the same feather flock together, of having ‘superior airs due to higher AIRs’ and criticise
them for not making any effort to bond with students
his own PhD days in Russia, to his other students
as warden of H8, to the Control Systems Labs he
even among the first years. I from other cultures. Critics find this a circular argument, ran as System and Control Convenor, he won the
found only Gujaratis and marathis pointing towards the intolerance and isolation they admiration and respect of many. An intellectual to
in my wing. suffer, which in turn is responsible for the lack of engage-
ment in the first place.
the very end, he spent his entire life in the pursuit
of knowledge for the sake of knowledge alone.

20

oPINIoN
NFS: Need for Security?
ANTARIKSH BoTHALE, Fouth Year Undergraduate, Mechanical Engineering Department
P eople who have read excerpts from Madhouse:
True Stories of the Inmates of Hostel 4, IIT-B
(co-authored by our ’82 alumnus, Bakul Desai) will
recall how he and his friends spent a lot of their leisure
time in the campus devising and executing all kinds
of crazy things. Going to classes on a borrowed horse;
procuring an elephant for PAF publicity (yes, most of
us students can’t imagine what it was like two decades
ago) from a South Indian don — these students (who
are all in highly respected positions now) have been
there, done that. Of course, things have changed with
the advent of the internet and we aren’t likely to see
that sort of stuff happening now, but the spirit remains
more or less the same.
IITBians are valued for their all-round development
and personality, which extends far beyond good
grades. This is something that comes from a certain
level of freedom of thought and action, and not from
being mollycoddled and treated like seven-year olds.
Imposing arbitrary restrictions stifle that spirit. We
then assume that the freedom to organise events at
whatever time and whichever place in the campus we
want (as long as we don’t disturb others) should be a
part of this. And while we appreciate the steps taken
to ensure that the campus is safe for women, a girl and
a guy (or any motley group of students) should be able
to roam in the campus at any time unhindered — they
definitely don’t deserve a telling-off! For example, the
latest circular to students points out that, “Roaming/
sitting in the dark or isolated places with opposite sex
during unearthly hours is a serious offence”. It would
be reasonable to expect that we would not have to
suffer arbitrary moral policing (based mostly on the
caprices of the security personnel on duty), which is
already the bane of our nation. Knee-jerk reactions to
singular incidences might be usual in our country’s
setup, but it would be stupid on our part to equate
that with the campus scenario — our day-to-day lives
are regulated by people who are far more intelligent,
and we want reason to be proud of that.
In this very issue of Raintree, you would find an interview
in which an official from the Vigilance Team explains his
work in detail. We salute these people, who make the
campus a safe place to live in, and we will happily suffer
mild inconveniences towards this cause. However, we
consider that within the campus, the freedom to do
anything we want (within the obvious limits of decency,
etc.) is something that can be safely taken for granted.
Trigger-happy college kids who find it easy (even cool) to
throw unconstructive criticism at authority might be well
suited for Rang De Basanti–esque movies, but we give
ourselves far more credit. Give us rules — sensible ones
— and we will follow them. There are faculty quarters
near the Main Road, so we think it’s OK to ask students
IN THE wILDERNESS
Red and Black bug at IIT
Bombay campus
Raintree October-November-December 2010
to not create a ruckus there late at night. But when we
get stuff like “Students are not permitted to go out of
campus for any adventure activity like trekking” — a rule
which would elicit a hearty laugh, if it weren’t for the
sorry fact that I quoted it out of a ‘Security Instructions for
Students’ email sent by the Chief Security Officer — we
think we are being rational, logical and just plain obvious
in complaining. Would the next rule be that “Students are
not permitted to cross railway tracks”? Apart from being
virtually impossible to implement, we shudder at the
precedent they are setting. A few parents worrying about
their kid going trekking translates into an institute-wide
rule? If a student’s parents prefer that he not go trekking,
they can advise him and inform him of the perceived
dangers, and that’s about it. I am sure there are many
other things parents are uncomfortable with, so should
we expect a mail saying “Students are not allowed to
watch late-night movie shows” or “Students can’t go out
in the rain without umbrellas”? I agree these are exagger-
ations, but I hope you see the spirit of the argument. This
Illustration by Roma Singh, IDC
is a college, not a boarding school, and having to say this
aloud feels rather silly. we are not as mature as we would
want ourselves to be, but we
Trigger-happy college kids are certainly capable of making
who find it easy to throw informed choices, and we strive
unconstructive criticism at for a campus where we are
authority might be well suited for allowed to make those choices.
Rang De Basanti–esque movies,
but we give ourselves far more rather than stopping me from doing so. When a baby cries,
you investigate why, and give him food if he’s hungry —
credit. Give us rules — sensible you don’t muffle him by stuffing a sock in his mouth and
ones — and we will follow them. assume that silence means that the problem is solved.
So, in summary: Let’s come to face it: students here are adults. As a resi-
Rules and policies should be formally laid out and justifi- dential, educational institution, it is IITB’s responsibility
cation for the same should be provided. It easier to follow to ensure their well-being. However, it does not mean
rules if we know the rationale behind them. If possible, that unnecessary restrictions be put on them. Parents
students should be a part of the whole process. might want but can’t expect the authorities to keep
Knee-jerk reactions are pointless. Indirect remedies a watchful eye on their kid every living moment, and
like making ID cards costly in an apparent attempt frankly, the authorities can’t and shouldn’t give in to
to make people serious about them don’t solve any such demands. We would be glad to have some breath-
purposes. Our ID card is valuable enough for us to not ing space — we are old enough to be allowed to play
want to lose it, even if it were `50 cheaper. In the event with fire. IITB has flourished in a period where students
of actual misuse — let’s say someone gives his card to were freer. When we chuckle over passages of the book
an outsider, thus compromising institute security — the by Bakul Desai, but now we also step back and think
offender can be suitably punished and the details of the about how many of those things Bakul could have done
incident (without names) should be made public for all in the present day campus. We are not as mature as
to know and be careful about. we would want ourselves to be, but we are certainly
Security personnel should not invent and impose rules capable of making informed choices, and we strive for a
based on their whims. And Moral Policing? Seriously? campus where we are allowed to make those choices.
ID cards shouldn’t be confiscated for stuff that hasn’t
even been defined as wrong. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the
I thought that the Security was there to ensure that I can author’s and do not necessarily represent those of IIT Bombay
roam around at whatever time in the campus fearlessly, or of Raintree
Photograph by C. P. Joglekar
21
Raintree October-November-December 2010
oPINIoN
Big Fat Zeros in Red Ink
DEEPU PANICKER Fifth Year Dual Degree, Mechanical Engineering Department
O ften you come across stories of people who had
some amazing experiences in their school life that
lead them to choose teaching as a career. This is not
one of those stories. The IIT Bombay programme for
postgraduates gives them the opportunity to become
Teaching Assistants in their final year. The reason this is
not like one of those stories I mentioned above is that
we (at least most of us) are doing it simply because we
are getting a stipend for it.
It is amazing how there is a dramatic shift in your
demeanour when you go from being a student to a
teacher. It does not matter that when you were study-
ing the same course, you barely managed to pass; now
that you are a TA you are looked upon as the all-know-
ing mentor (at least by the freshies). And you behave
like one in the classes that you assist in. Clueless freshies
often come to you for all sorts of advice; I can say this
because this is what we did when we were freshies.
The attitude towards TAs changes quite a bit in the
students during their later years though, when they
realise that you do not know a lot more than they do.
So the questions directed at TAs are inclined more
towards getting the lab/assignment done, as opposed
to freshies, who ask insightful and technical doubts
hoping that they would lead to a ‘Eureka’ moment.
[Being a TA] inherently comes
with the feeling of being a
hypocrite, as you attempt to stop
people from copying though you
would not mind it and would
probably try it yourself if you were
writing the same exam.
PERSoNALITy
Heading Vigilance
A lmost often, it is instinctive to disregard rules and restric-
tions, particularly if the authority figure is a security
officer and you are a student at IIT Bombay. It would have
been the same for me, were it not for Mood Indigo 2009. In
my capacity as CG (Assistance & Hospitality), I had to coor-
dinate with participants and oversee pass distribution.
That’s when I met Mr. Maruti Dinkar Rokde, the Head for the
Vigilance team at IITB. Pass distribution lines would invari-
ably run into chaos and Mr. Rokde would fly to our rescue
every time. This interview is special to me, and it’s not only
because it’s the first ever I’ve taken. Usually, I’m the one who’s
doing all the talking but there’s something about Mr. Rokde’s
commitment and dedication to his work that could make
even the most inveterate talker listen with respect.
Introduction by ASHU PARwAL, Fifth Year Dual Degree,
Mechanical Engineering Department
AP: I, of course know this but for the benefit of our
readers, let’s start from the beginning. How long have
you been here? And what do you do?
mDR: Actually, I was born in IITB in 1973. So I have an
abiding bond with the campus. I joined Security in
The biggest difference between
the earlier days in IIT and now
is during mood Indigo. Earlier,
moodI used to happen in
Gymkhana grounds. There was a
lot more happening as it was for
10 days straight but now it is more
limited. For moodI, we’re all on
duty 24 hours a day during fests.
It’s the same thing for TechFest.
22
This unusual perspective about you being the well-
versed expert takes some time to sink in. The answer,
“pata nahi, yaar” (I don’t know, man) is not enough any
more and only leads to embarrassing shaking of heads
from the TAs and students alike. Obviously, bothering
to learn a little bit more about what you are going to
teach would spare you such moments. So for most of
us in our fifth year, we, along with our students ended
up learning the subjects as well (for the second time).
Becoming a TA really answers a lot of questions
you wondered about when you were a student. For
example, I would always wonder how people got
through two to three hours of invigilation duties.
Having done it myself, I can confirm that it is in fact
more boring than the 5’8” high, 80 kilo sleeping pill
that teaches us. Moreover, it inherently comes with the
feeling of being a hypocrite, as you attempt to stop
people from copying though you would not mind it
and would probably try it yourself if you were writing
the same exam.
Personally, I have always looked forward to correcting
answer scripts. On countless occasions I have written
nonsensical answers in exams because I did not know
the correct ones. It made me wonder how the correc- Illustration by Regan Raj, IDC
tor would react while reading it. I am sure we have all
done it and now, I can tell you from my own experi- It did reaffirm my faith in our creativity, though. Now in
ences how the corrector feels. It is annoying, at least my own exams, I don’t go around writing stuff hoping
initially. I hated those students who would write for some marks, as I feel pity for the poor guy who will
preposterous answers. Though, after a while I realised have to read through all of it. And finally, speaking of
that it is important to not forget that you were once things I learnt as a TA, the most important thing was
the same incompetent, under-prepared and sleep- that I loved drawing big fat zeros in red ink, especially
deprived student. On some occasions, you even feel on answer scripts.
quite bad for them; you’re unable to give marks for the
amount of thinking they have employed into adroitly Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the
weaving an answer by just paraphrasing the question author’s and do not necessarily represent those of IIT Bombay
and playing with the given data. or of Raintree
Interview with mR. mARUTI DINKAR RoKDE, Head of Vigilance Team, IITB
2002. When the Vigilance team was formed in 2003,
we had only three members. Currently we have 10
members and are training three new recruits.
AP: What does the Vigilance team do?
mDR: The primary task of the team is to observe each
and every corner of IITB. The campus is spread across
545 acres and our job is to keep a watch on everyone
including staff, faculty, students, visitors, outsiders,
etc. every day. Also, we keep a check on the fences
and boundaries so that no leopard enters the campus.
Our duties also include checking areas connected to
the Powai Lake. We keep a track of who enters the
Academic Area because it is a restricted entry zone.
We also keep a watch on the activities of outsiders,
and their schedules.
AP: Do you have a lot of interaction with students?
mDR: Yes, yes. I have good interactions with students,
faculty and staff but sometimes I have to be strict with
students just so they do not go in the wrong direction.
The Vigilance team generally gets cooperation from
everyone.
We handle student complaints as a part of our jobs
too. We prevent students from consuming alcohol and
drugs. We catch students who smuggle in vehicles and
we ensure the safety of girls, especially in the night,
Photograph by Venkat Damara
and also ensure that no girl enters the boys’ hostel or
vice versa after 10 pm. Finally, we report all observations and cases the next
AP: What are your other nightly duties?
day to our Head of Security.
mDR: We ensure that all department rooms are locked The first thing in the morning is to check the night
and that only students are present in the department report and discuss it with the Chief. Then the
area. We keep a check on street-lights and general
lights so that there are no dark areas in the campus.
complaints which are addressed to the control room
are discussed and a case-by-case analysis is done.

Photograph by Rangoli Garg, IDC
AP: What are the differences between security guards
in plain clothes and others in uniform?
mDR: The only main difference between uniformed
security men and the Vigilance team is that the duties
of the uniformed security people are limited whereas
there are no boundaries on the duties of the Vigilance
team. The Vigilance team is grateful to Vijay Sir
(ex-head of Security team) and the Dean of Student
Affairs for their constant support and motivation.
AP: What are your working hours like? Do you have a
family here on campus?
mDR: The minimum working hours for a Vigilance
officer are 8 but there is no fixed schedule. We’re on
call at any hour depending upon different situations.
Yes, I have a family. I live with my parents, brother,
sister, wife and daughter on campus.
AP: What about security during events and fests — how
do things change for those few days in December?
mDR: The biggest difference between the earlier days
in IIT and now is during Mood Indigo. Earlier, MoodI
used to happen in Gymkhana grounds. There was a lot
more happening as it was for 10 days straight but now
it is more limited.
For MoodI, we keep a check on all the students attend-
ing the fest. Firstly, the Vigilance team is briefed by the
Security Officer. We patrol the entire campus through-
out day and night during the fest. We ensure security
to all the participants. We sanitise all the event venues.
Basically, we’re all on duty 24 hours a day during fests.
It’s the same thing for TechFest.
AP: Any humourous incidents of alchoholism, student
pranks and such that you’d like to recount to us? What
kind of trouble do students get into?
mDR: A student used to steal mobiles and used to keep
them in between books in the library as he couldn’t
find any other safe place. Another student stole two
cell phones from a couple of students’ rooms and when
the Vigilance team caught on to him, came to confront
him and knocked on his door, he threw the cell phones
out from the back window in fear. Luckily the smart
Guidelines for students:
1. Please lock your rooms if you go anywhere.
2. Please inform any suspicious activity to
Security.
3. Expensive items should be locked in
cupboards.
4. Please don’t hang outside the tum-tums.
Earlier students were more laid-
back and were not so serious-
looking. Everyone used to
have fun and enjoy their lives
but nowadays the fun and the
‘happy culture’ is missing from
the campus. Students have
become ‘maggu’ now…
Vigilance team had already stationed an officer behind
the room and he caught the cell phones on the ground.
There was a student with his girlfriend who was spotted
climbing the Sameer hill at 2 am in the night. He was
carrying a blanket on his shoulder. A Vigilance officer
saw this and followed them to the top of the hill. The
Vigilance team found out that they were making out
at the top of the hill, and they were brought down by
the Vigilance guys. The girl was a doctor. She had some
surgical equipment in her bag. The Vigilance guys, to
this day joke that, “Bhagat Singh planned his operation
at 2 am in the night on the top of a hill’.
During the valedictory function of H9 we caught a lot
of alcohol being brought inside campus. The team
placed themselves at every entrance possible and one
of the Vigilance guys was positioned behind the Kshitij
Park. The delivery guy for the alcohol came in a rick-
shaw from behind the Kshitij Park and the Vigilance
officer caught him. The Vigilance team decided to
make the Vigilance officer act as the delivery boy and
the students did not suspect anything. So they told
the Vigilance officer to put the bottles in a room. The
Vigilance officer called the Chief and all the students
were fined. We’re smart guys, you know. (He laughs)
Another incident I remember is that there were two
students from VIT staying in H8 in the summer and
one more person not related to them, but from VIT as
well, was there too. One day this guy stole the laptops
of the other two students. The team put a trap and
caught him just a day before he was about the leave.
He had chloroform with him, which he probably used
on the students. He stole it from the laboratory where
he was working. His plan was to sell the laptops in
Hyderabad to get money to send his girlfriend gifts.
AP: I was present there as a student witness since the
security guys didn’t have much knowledge of the ordi-
nary-looking chemical. I was about to smell it when
the VIT student asked me not to smell it. (I am truly
thankful to him for stopping me.)
mDR: (Laughs) An FIR had already been lodged
against that student earlier for another offence. He was
taken to the police. He even had visited Chor Bazaar
in Mumbai, and had also stolen new test tubes and
beakers from the laboratory. The professor in-charge
of the laboratory was his father’s friend.
AP: How was the Vigilance team formed and what are
the criteria for getting into it?
mDR: The Vigilance team is formed by people from
the uniformed Security team. The important crite-
ria for selection to the Vigilance team are: sincerity,
patience, honesty, having an observant nature and the
willingness to work hard.
The team is then trained for handling all possible cases —
mobile phone loss, bike loss, robbery, laptop theft, etc.
AP: What are the reasons for so many thefts?
mDR: Thefts have come down significantly after the
formation of the Vigilance team. But the numbers of
security guards per person, entering the campus are
quite less. We are not provided with any arms. More
importantly, our boundaries are not that strong. The
fencing of IITB’s boundaries should be stronger. There
should be a 15 feet wall fencing, which would lower
the need for patrolling the boundaries and decrease
the burden on the Vigilance team.
Raintree October-November-December 2010
The Vigilance team has recovered numerous lost items
like over 80 bicycles, 200 kg of copper wires, around
60 mobile phones, 20 laptops and 4-5 motorbikes. All
the alcohol, bikes and other stuff caught is sealed and
packed with the Security office.
Thieves who do this consist not only of people within
the campus but also outsiders. The Vigilance team has
a network with the police to catch hold of people who
have gone out of the campus.
All the areas (Academic, Market, Hill side, Lake side,
Hostel, Central) are interconnected which makes the
campus even more vulnerable. And there are a lot of
construction workers in the institute. All this increases
our burden and it gets difficult to keep a check on
everyone. I think that the Academic Area should
be sealed off from other areas and entry should be
allowed only at designated check points.
AP: Are there any faculty members who give trouble?
Faculty families who might be troublesome?
mDR: A faculty member complained about me once. A
bicycle had been stolen that day and I was standing in
front of the Electrical Engineering Department to find
the bicycle. That day many LCD monitors had been
stolen too. A professor was coming out of the building
carrying two heavy bags. Just as confirmation, I asked
the professor about his identity and what he was
carrying in the bags. The professor got really annoyed
by this and complained about me. But on the whole,
most faculty members don’t cause trouble.
AP: What are the changes you have seen in campus
from the time you’ve been here – in students, in faculty?
mDR: Earlier students were more laid-back and were
not so serious-looking. Everyone used to have fun and
enjoy their lives but nowadays the fun and the ‘happy
culture’ is missing from the campus. Students have
become ‘maggu’ now… People were more interested
in sports and fests earlier. The faculty is more or less
the same as before.
Members of the Vigilance team:
1. Maruti D. Rokde
2. M. Verma
3. S. Khandagle
4. R. Shinde
5. R. Yadav
6. A. Munde
7. J. Kerwan
8. L. Langhe
9. K. Saroj
10. S. Korgaonkar
Rokde Sir believes that if rules are made, they should
be the same for all students, staff and faculty. Neither
faculty nor students ought to be exempted from these
rules: everyone should cooperate with the Security. The
Vigilance team relies heavily on teamwork. They cannot
work efficiently without their network. Despite this, they
are deeply dedicated to their work and perform their
duties proficiently with the limited resources that they
have. They are also given no rewards for their work –
there is no salary hike. Considering all this and their stellar
work — the Vigilance team rocks!
Photograph by C. P. Joglekar
23
Raintree October-November-December 2010

NEwS

IITB Reveals the Science Behind Homeopathy

In their recent paper, a team of three professors and
a PhD research fellow of the Chemical Engineering
Department, IIT Bombay, have unearthed the scientific
basis behind the dilution and potency of Homeopathic
medicines: Nanotechnology. The paper entitled
“Extreme Homeopathic Dilutions Retain Starting
Materials: A Nanoparticulate Perspective,” has been
authored by Prashant Chikramane, Dr. A. K. Suresh, Dr. S.
G. Kane and Dr. Jayesh Bellare.
For many years now, Homeopathy, as a branch of
medicine, has not been recognised as a having a scien-
tific basis, making many scientists greatly skeptical of
its value, and wary of studying it. This recent paper
could radically change this perspective, since the
science behind potency - the main bone of conten-
tion between homeopaths and modern scientists - has
finally been resolved. Potentiation is the practice of
serially diluting the medicine to increase its potency. In
Homeopathy, a basic principle is that the more diluted
a medicine is, the more powerful its effects.
However, modern science postulates that the more
an element is diluted, the weaker it becomes. For
example, if we put a drop of red ink in a litre of water,
then take a drop from this water to dilute it further in
another litre of water (and repeat this process a few
hundred times), eventually, all particles of the red ink
will disappear from the solution. Extreme dilutions can
remove every atom or molecule from a sample.
Mathematically, this means that a series of 1:99 dilutions
done sequentially will produce a significant dilution of
the starting material in very short order. Specifically, if the
starting material is at one molar concentration (6.023 x
10e23 molecules per litre), then at about the 12th dilution
(12C) there should be no (or very nearly no) molecules
left of the starting material. At the 200th dilution (200 C),
the likelihood of there being even one atom of the start-
ing material approaches zero. This led to a feeling that in
highly diluted homeopathic medicines, there is simply
nothing left of the original drug, and therefore, it fell
afoul of modern scientific principles. However, according
to this paper, dilution does not work so simply.
Using electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction
and atomic spectroscopy, the researchers found that medicinal particles remain at the nano-level. However,
contrary to the arithmetic above, there are nanogram because they are at the nano level, they have remained
quantities of the starting material still present in these undetected so far. This also means that the effects of
‘high potency’ remedies in the form of nanoparticles. dilution stop or change after crossing the atomic level.
This is fascinating because this means that certain
high potency (highly diluted) Homeopathic remedies The group built on their expertise of understanding
which are made from metals, still contain measurable Ayurvedic Bhasmas and the role of nanoparticles there,
amounts of the starting material, even at extreme dilu- which was previously published, also in international
tions of 1 part in 10 raised to 400 parts (200 C). peer-reviewed scientific journals. The work was funded
in part by IRCC, IITB and our alumni (Shridhar Shukla, B.
In lay language, this means that in a highly-diluted Tech, Electrical Engineering, 1983 and Prof. Kane). The
medicine, which homeopathy calls highly-potentiated paper does not claim the efficiency of Homeopathic
medicine, the original medicinal particles exist at the remedies or explain its medicinal effects. Rather, it
nano-level in the medicines studied. After a certain proposes a solid scientific explanation for the way
threshold, dilution crosses the atomic level, but the potentiation works in Homeopathy.

Placements Soar at IIT Bombay

Placements at IIT Bombay have seen a 50% increase
in the number of companies that arrived on campus.
IIT’s placement season in general has seen salaries soar
between 40% and 172%, and average salaries went up
from 15% to 30% from last year. The number of recruit-
ers and the offers has surpassed last year’s figures.
“The number of offers (at IITB) is twice that of last year,
with around 350 offers in the first five days,” said Prof.
Ravi Sinha, the Professor-in-charge for placements at
the institute.

For placements this time around, companies coming to

campus were asked to not camouflage placement offers
with perks. IITB had also decided that it will consider
only gross taxable incomes to ensure transparency in
recruitments. While well-established companies have
not suffered because of this, start-ups and small innova-
tion laboratories with massive differences between CTC
and gross taxable income were affected.

“Stability and reputation of a company matter the

most when we let it hire our graduates. We are not
considering CTC this year, just the gross taxable
income,” said Prof. Ravi Sinha, the placement head at
IITB. “While we didn’t allow a handful of companies
to participate, we welcomed a few new firms whose
financial documents proved their businesses are
indeed sustainable.”

“Despite this different approach, we are confident that

we will perform better than many other engineering
colleges,” Sinha said. “We have many more recruiters
that offer large salaries.”

Recruiters coming to the college are from across

sectors and streams. This year, firms queued up at IITs
to offer foreign positions are electronics equipment
maker Sony, miner Rio Tinto, marine transporter Tanker
Pacific and consumer goods firm Procter & Gamble.
Besides regulars such as Shell, Morgan Stanley,
McKinsey, ONGC, SAIL and ITC, new recruiters include
Facebook, Amazon and Opera Solutions. “Students
prefer companies related to their primary area of
specialisation,” Sinha said. Placements will continue till
the end of December. After a few days’ break, recruit-
ment will re-start in January. The placement season
normally continues until April or May.

24

EVENTS
Book Launch: An Indian
in Cowboy Country
On 8th December, 2010, IIT Bombay alumnus Pradeep
Anand launched his book An Indian in Cowboy
Country, Stories from an Immigrant’s Life at Crossword
in Kemps Corner.
Pradeep Anand was born in Bombay. He is a graduate
of IITB and has an MBA from the University of Houston.
Pradeep migrated to Houston, Texas more than 25
years ago, and has experienced the city’s evolution
from a small town to a global metropolis that gradu-
ally embraced ethnic multiplicity. Moreover, he worked
for most of his 25 years within the bulls-eye of cowboy
culture in Texas: the oilfield service industry. He is presi-
dent of Seeta Resources (www.seeta.com) and lives with
his family and their dog, Cookie, in a Houston suburb.
Book launch of An Indian in Cowboy Country in
Crossword, Mumbai
The book explores the story of an Indian engineer who
discovers his personal and professional potential in the
heart of Texas. The book is more than a fictional tale
of an engineer who overcomes cultural differences to
succeed in America. It shares the challenges anyone
might experience in life and in business and looks at
important lessons learned along the way.
Ask-A-Question
‘Ask a Question’ is a series IIT Bombay launched on
11th November, 2010 as a part of the ‘Talk to a Teacher’
project. The work in this series involves allowing
students of any engineering college to post their
conceptual questions on Electrical Engineering, elec-
tronics engineering, telecommunication, control,
power systems and microelectronics at a forum, avail-
able at http://co-learn.in/Ask 24x7. IITB faculty will
answer the questions on the same forum, offline.
Others can also answer those questions.
Faculty will answer select questions in a live session
as well. Anyone, anywhere, can join in an interac-
tive mode through A-VIEW (developed by Amrita
University), which is also a part of the ‘Talk to a
Teacher’ project.
There are instructions on the URL on how to download
A-VIEW, through which one can interact live with the
panelists. Faculty invites students to join in through
A-VIEW. Students are urged to post their questions
at this URL as early as possible. This will allow faculty
to choose the questions that will be taken up for
discussion in the live sessions in advance. The series
has begun with Electrical Engineering. We hope to
extend this service to other fields as well in the future.
Experts from other institutions will also participate.
The objective of this exercise is to improve the levels of
education in the country.
The ‘Ask a Question’ series is presented by the ‘Talk to
a Teacher’ project, funded by the National Mission on
Education through ICT, www.sakshat.ac.in
35th Anniversary Celebration
of the Batch of 1975
IIT Bombay’s batch of 1975 met in campus to celebrate
their 35th anniversary on 12th October, 2010. The batch is
actively engaged in helping IITB realise its vision of joining
the top 20 institutes of the world over the next couple
of decades. 20 alumni members, that included industry
leaders and entrepreneurs from India and USA met with
faculty members to identify key areas of support required
to catapult the institute to the next level.
The batch met students at the F. C. Kohli auditorium for
a panel discussion, featuring four ex-students currently
involved in running Syntel: Bharat Desai, Chairman of
the Board, Prashant Ranade, CEO and board members
Paritosh Choksi and Rajesh Mashruwala. This is a unique
set of circumstances, unique to India as well, where four
members of the same batch are involved in the running
of a company that was founded in the US, with opera-
tions in Mumbai, Chennai and Pune.
Cumulatively, the batch of 1975 has been by far one
of the most outstanding batches that IITB has ever
produced, where students have excelled both at the
national and global stage. This batch has the largest
number of distinguished alumnus awardees in a single
year (five): Avinash Manudhane (Partner, Goldman
Sachs), Bharat Desai (Chairman, Syntel Inc.), Environment
Minister Jairam Ramesh, Prashant Ranade (CEO Syntel
Inc.) and Colin Gonsalves (Founder, Human Rights Law
network). The honour roll of achievers from this batch
include CEOs of multi-million dollar corporations, our
current environment minister, serial entrepreneurs,
venture capitalists, social activists, including a fellow at
GE and a Supreme Court advocate, just to name a few.
Contributions from the class of 1975 exceeds $35 million
so far, making them the largest donor batch for IITB
and the highest for any educational institute in India.
They have been instrumental in gathering support from
other alumni and the results are visible in campus.
Primarily due to the contributions of alumni from the
batch of 1975, the alumni organisation has played a
significant role in ensuring that it is recognised as a
global phenomenon. They were the primary drivers
behind setting up the IIT Bombay Heritage fund in the
US, through which a number of alumni have contrib-
uted to the institute. They were also instrumental
in helping to set up the alumni movement in India
through the IIT Bombay Alumni Association. Their
contributions helped in founding the PanIIT Alumni
Association, leveraging other IIT alumni associations to
expand their outreach.
Research Scholars’ Confluence, 2010
IIT Bombay hosted the Research Scholars’ Confluence,
2010 on November 13, 2010 on campus. The conflu-
ence was hosted as part of IITB’s efforts to promote
doctoral research activity, as a sequel to an earlier
event organised in 2008. It recognised contributions
and achievements of its former PhD students in the
growth of the institute and our country.
The confluence showcased IITB’s contribution towards
creating and augmenting the human resource pool
for carrying out R&D in academia, government-funded
research laboratories and corporate research endeav-
ours. Presentations were made to an invited audience
of senior professionals from R&D organisations which
utilise our PhDs.
The event was inaugurated by Dr. Anil Kakodkar and
involved speeches on advanced scientific themes by
former research scholars such as Dr. Kota Harinarayan
on ‘Integrated Vehicle Health Management’, and by
Dr. Sunil Sherlekar on ‘High Performance Computing’.
Current PhD students displayed their work through
poster sessions in various departments.
Raintree October-November-December 2010
LECTURE
An Institute Lecture on ‘Nanotechnology Boosts
Sensor Technology’ by Dr. Hubert Brückl, AIT (Austrian
Institute of Technology), Nano Systems, Vienna,
Austria, was organised on December 6th, 2010.
CoLLoQUIUm
IIT Bombay and TechniGraphicS Foundation organised
a TechniGraphicS Lecture on ‘From Ape to Angel: A
Neurological Perspective on Human Nature’ by Dr. V. S.
Ramachandran, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor and
Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of
California, San Diego and Salk Institute on
December 7th, 2010.
ALUmNI NEwS
DR. CHETAN E. CHITNIS, Staff Research Scientist,
Malaria Group, has been awarded the Infosys Prize,
2010 in Life Sciences for his work on the development
of malaria vaccines. This is one of the highest science
awards in India.
PRoF. UDAyA KUmAR D. was awarded the ‘Young
Indian Leaders Award’ by the Network18 Media group.
The award was given at New Delhi on 25th October,
2010 by the event’s Chief Guest Mr. Nandan Nilekani,
Chairman, UIDAI.
AwARDS
PRoF. SUDHIR GHoRPADE, has been elected as Fellow
of the National Academy of Sciences India (NASI).
PRoF. RAmAGoPAL RAo, Department of Electrical
Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the
National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).
PRoF. S. K. mAITI, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, has been elected as Fellow of the
National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).
PRoF. jAyESH BELLARE, Department of Chemical
Engineering, has been awarded the NASI-Reliance
Platinum Jubilee Award for 2010 by The National
Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) for his application
oriented research innovations in the physical sciences.
PRoF. D. CHANDRASEKHARAm, Department of Earth
Sciences, has been appointed as an independent Director
on the Board of Indian Rare Earth Ltd. (Department of
Atomic Energy) for a period of three years.
PRoF. D. BAHADUR, Department of Metallurgical
Engg and Materials Science, has been selected by the
Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) for the ‘MRSI
Distinguished Lecturership’ for the period 2011-2012.
The award will be presented at the Annual General
Meeting of the MRSI scheduled to be held at Bhopal
during February 14–16, 2011.
PRoF. HETU SHETH, Department of Earth Sciences has
been selected by the Indian Geophysical Union (IGU),
Hyderabad, to receive the Krishnan Gold Medal for
the year 2010. The Medal will be presented at the 47th
Annual Convention of the IGU, on 8th December 2010,
in Hyderabad.
PRoF. S. L. DHINGRA, Institute Chair Professor &
Emeritus Fellow Transportation Systems Engineering
Civil Engineering Department, has been appointed
member of new Executive Committee of IBEC-ITS
(International Benefits Evaluation and Costs - of
Intelligent Transport System groups) for 2010-2011,
representing India.
PRoF. D.N. SINGH, Department of Civil Engineering,
has been elected as a fellow of the Indian National
Academy of Engineering (INAE).
25
Raintree October-November-December 2010
AwARDS
PRoF. SoUVIK mAHAPATRA, Department of
Electrical Engineering, has been elected as a fellow of
the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE).
PRoF. H. B. SINGH, Department of Chemistry, has
been awarded Ramanna Fellowship (second time) by
the Department of Science and Technology.
PRoF. NAND KISHoRE, Department of Chemistry, has
been elected as the President of the Indian Chemical
Society (Mumbai Branch) for a period of two years.
PRoF. A. K. SURESH, Department of Chemical
Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian
National Academy of Engineering (INAE).
PRoF. V. A. jUVEKAR, Department of Chemical
Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian
National Academy of Engineering (INAE).
PRoF. mIRA mITRA, Department of Aerospace Engineer-
ing, has been selected for the Young Engineer Award 2010
by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE).
PRoF. ASHwIN GUmASTE, Department of Computer
Science & Engineering, has been selected for the
Young Engineer Award 2010 by the Indian National
Academy of Engineering (INAE).
PRoF. RoHIT SRIVASTAVA, Department of
Biosciences & Bioengineering, has been selected for
the Young Engineer Award 2010 by the Indian National
Academy of Engineering (INAE) .
A team lead by PRoF. ANURADDA GANESH (Cumins
Engine Research Facility, IIT Bombay and Cumins
India Limited), Department of Energy Science &
Engineering, were ranked the best and confereed
the “Most Innovative Energy Savings Product Award”
under the CII National Award for Excellence in Energy
Management 2010.
PRoF. D. BAHADUR, Department of MEMS, has been
selected for the ‘MRSI Distinguished Lecturership’ for
the period 2011-12 by Materials Research Society of
India (MRSI).
PRoF. HETU SHETH, Department of Earth Science,
has been selected for the Krishnan Gold Medal by the
Indian Geophysical Union (IGU), Hyderabad.
PRoF. SUDHIR GHoRPADE, Department of
Mathematics, has been elected as a Fellow of the
National Academy of Sciences India(NASI).
Prof. V. K. SINGH, Department of Chemistry, has been
selected to receive the CRSI Silver Medal in recogni-
tion of his extensive and outstanding contributions to
research in Chemistry.
Prof. H.B. SINGH, Department of Chemistry, has been
awarded the Ramanna Fellowship by the DST for the
second time in recognition of his excellent academic
and research work.
PRoF. T. K. BISwAL, Professor and Head of Earth
Sciences Department, has been awarded the National
Mineral Award for Basic Geosciences, 2008 by the
Ministry of Mines, Government of India.
PRoF. S. P. SUKHATmE (Professor Emeritus,
Mechanical Engineering Department) was given the
prestigious ‘Prof. S. N. Mitra Memorial Award’ of the
Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) at the
annual convention of INAE held in Visakhapatnam
on December 10 and 11, 2010. Only Fellows of INAE
who are eminent engineers, scientists or technolo-
gists of high achievement and standing are eligible
for this award. It is customary for the recipient to
deliver a public lecture on a subject of his choice. Prof.
Sukhatme spoke on the topic ‘The Energy Scenario in
India – The Present and the Future’.
26
APPoINTmENTS SHoRT TAKE
mS. SHoBHA DILEEP KULKARNI
has been appointed as Deputy
Librarian in the Central Library
Hawt-Dawg!
on September 6th, 2010.
HImANSHU DIXIT Second Year M.Sc.,
PRoF. (mS.) VENKATACHALAm has Chemistry Department
been appointed as the Head of Centre
of Studies in Resources Engineering
(CSRE) on August 20th, 2010. G entlemen, do you know how it feels when on a
fresh morning, your hunger for breakfast makes
you forget to latch the door to your room, only to
discover the most diseased mutt resting comfortably
RETIREmENTS
on your dear mattress?! Such a vision after a satiated
stomach is enough to cause a skin rash!
mRS. RoHINI C. SAwANT retired after
36 years of service on October 31st, And we’re not talking about a cute-sy doggie here, but
2010. She worked in the institute as Jr. a famously unclean and diseased mongrel who owns
Superintendent, Accounts Section the hostel corridors at night. It certainly requires a great
deal of patience and character, when you know that
Mrs. Sawant was a very prompt and sincere worker during your end-semester exams, you have to sleep
who worked with diligence and accuracy. She on a bare cot and the reason for that is right in front
was very dependable. A job once entrusted to her you, prowling, regardless of the trouble he has caused.
would be completed successfully. Her qualities of That mangy mutt seemed quite serene in response to
calmness and composure distinguished her from my heavy outpourings to get it off my bed. Some days
others. It is worth mentioning that she completed ago, the same dog gave my roommate the same jitters
her graduation after joining the institute, balancing when it hunched on his cot too.
her home, schooling of children and service at
IITB. She was well-loved by the entire Mathematics
Department, which also felicitated her at her
retirement. She will be deeply missed by everyone.
- Ms Savita. V. Patki, Assistant Registrar (F&A)
PRoF. (mS) USHA S. PowLE
retired after 44 years of service on
September 31st, 2010. She worked in
the Institute as Associate Professor
in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Prof. Usha Powle retired after 44 years of service on
September 30th, 2010. She worked in the institute
as an Associate Professor in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering. She worked in the area
of fluid mechanics, fluid machines and vacuum
engineering. She has guided 4 doctoral students. Illustration by Jim Mathew Kochitty
- Prof. S. V. Prabhu, Professor, Department
of Mechanical Engineering Now I don’t know whether the dog had a particular
liking or allegiance to Room no. 217. But on a serious
PRoF. G. V. PRABHUGAoNKAR note, it’s a pity that that there is no action from authori-
retired after 27 years of service ties to tackle the dog when it has serious potential of
on September 30th, 2010. He making somebody fatally ill. For us, we saw him sitting
worked in the institute as a in our room but for those who don’t see him languish-
Professor in the Department of Metallurgical ing on their cots, ignorance would not be bliss.
Engineering & Material Science.
I still wonder if anyone will react but till then, for every-
From the time I joined the MEMS department, I would body, beware! Latch the doors, lock them, do the best
see this bearded professor walking to his laboratory you can! Mattresses are the only comfort, man! The
at all hours of the day and late evenings. A man with mutt is out there.
tremendous industrial experience in France and in India,
Prof. Prabhugaonkar hails from Goa. An authority in P.S: Though our mattresses are out in the wing corridor
Fracture Mechanics & Failure Analysis, he has contributed for weeks; the dog hasn’t come to sit on them. Room
significantly to the Indian industry and the society. no. 217, curse you.
- Prof. R.O. Dusane, HoD, MEMS
Prof. R. Raman retired after 40
years of service on September 30th,
2010. He worked in the institute
as a Professor in the Department
of Metallurgical Engineering & Material Science.
“Prof. R. Raman is a B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph.D. from IIT
Bombay. He joined service as a technical staff and
rose to become a Laboratory Superintendent, before
joining as a faculty member in the Department of
Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science
in 1997. He superannuates as Professor, after an
association with the institute of more than 45 years.
Prof. Raman’s expertise is in the area of Metal Joining
and Corrosion, and he has been responsible for
developing this research area at IIT Bombay by making
significant contributiosn to this body of knowledge.
His contributions to the Hostel administration for
many years has been appreciated by the students.
- Prof. R.O. Dusane, HoD, MEMS

FICTIoN
Braess’s Paradox
BoDAS TEjAS PRAKASH Final Year Postgraduate, Electrical Engineering Department
W hen Braess was introduced into the Tirst Fank,
he was overwhelmed. He had never been in
an atmosphere as lively as this. Most importantly, he
was overjoyed that fishes here were like-minded. His
out-of-the-box thinking made sense to everyone. His
eccentricities were overlooked and he had a queue of
reasons to keep himself motivated.
Braess soon made a few good friends. He had become
a popular figure for his skills and simplicity. Being the
youngest, he had many fishes to look up to, but the
ones he admired most were Asuman and Pigou. In
them, he found friends he had always wished to have.
Braess would take immense pride in wandering along
with Asuman. The ever-enthusiastic Asuman was a
delight for him. Asuman too enjoyed being in Braess’s
company. In some challenging times, Braess had
stepped in as a vital support.
With Pigou, however, it was different. Pigou showered
Braess with words of wisdom and tales of glory. Pigou
showed maturity beyond understanding which made
Braess prouder of his mentor. But Braess found Pigou to
be a black box and an introvert to the highest degree.
Although he took joy in discovering Pigou, he wished he
could look beyond the black box and wanted Pigou to
open up to the world. He believed that hidden some-
where beneath was a great fish with a beautiful mind,
who had a great story to tell. The story, he felt, could
become a magnum opus, but was too shy to come out.
Time flew by as Braess settled at Tirst Fank. His two
friends had become larger than life. In Braess, the
two found a friend they were proud of. Apart from
just flying, time has its own surprises too. Asuman
and Pigou had become too big to be accommo-
dated in Tirst Fank any longer. It was now apparent
to them that their time would be up soon and at
some point they would be forced to move to Tecond
Sank. This was going to be tough on them. They had
many memories here: memories of their triumph,
Life was circular. He found himself
in the shoes of Asuman and Pigou
and would sift between being
their different personalities as
needed by his friends.
their struggle, some good times and some bad ones.
Memories which Braess had no complete picture of. For
Braess, these two were the only prized possessions he
had. But for them, they had many things to part from.
Braess was almost crestfallen in the parting moment.
He would pinch himself harder each time with the
hope that he would wake up from this bad dream. This
was not to be, though. One day Asuman and Pigou
were gone. Although Tecond Sank and Tirst Fank were
two adjoining tanks, and all three could see each other
at the border, they had to meet at the same time. Once
a while they would indeed congregate and spend
some time together at the borders, but it was a short-
lived experience as they had to get back to their lives.
This situation was cruel on Braess. He would wander
alone, trying hard to focus on his routine but was
always drawn to the borders. He made it a point to
regularly attempt to get a glimpse of his dear ones.
On most occasions, he failed to even spot Asuman
and Pigou in the crowd of Tecond Sank. But then, he
would not give up. Braess would turn up at the empty
borders like a routine. He was not ready to move on.
Braess was almost crestfallen in
the parting moment. He would
pinch himself harder each time
with the hope that he would wake
up from this bad dream. This
was not to be, though. one day
Asuman and Pigou were gone.
When the borders were empty, he began to question
the foundations of their friendship. He felt forgotten
and perhaps betrayed. He posed a lot of questions
and the answers that came further confused him. But
the moment he had a glimpse of Asuman and Pigou,
his faith in them was always restored. He realised how
wrong his recurrent doubts on friendship were and felt
bad at the selfish questions he had posed. It became
clearer to him how cruel Tecond Sank was and how
hard his friends were fighting to settle down there. He
realised that they too were drawn to the borders but
then if they had to move on, they had to look the other
direction; the positive one.
Raintree October-November-December 2010
Braess too began to move on. His visits to the borders
reduced as time passed by. He got back to his routine
with no expectations. Occasionally he was morose in
their memory but then moved on in good spirit. Every
lesson that the two had taught him now began to
reflect in his nature and his way of life. He grew stron-
ger and wiser day by day. His two friends had indeed
had a profound impact on him. With time he found
himself to be the centre of attention. A lot of newer
fishes were looking up to him. They admired him,
hovered around him and did almost anything to make
his day. Braess felt indebted for the trust they showed
him. Life was circular. He found himself in the shoes of
Asuman and Pigou and would sift between being their
different personalities as needed by his friends.
Being the youngest, he had
many fishes to look up to, but
the ones he admired most were
Asuman and Pigou. In them,
he found friends he had always
wished to have.
Now he himself transferred the vibrancy that Asuman
showed and the story hidden in Pigou became clear.
The black box became transparent. Through expe-
rience, he got answers to Questions he had never
thought of. This was possible only due to the faith in
their friendship that he had clung on to till the end. He
was confident that his new friends might struggle a bit
after he was gone, but surely life would throw some
answers their way which would make them realise
essentially what the real questions could have been.
He taught his friends this final important lesson before
leaving.
“Asking Questions with the intention of knowing more
does not always help. It is worthwhile at times, to wait
for the answers to come and unravel themselves for
what the real questions could have been.”
This is the famous Braess’s Paradox.
Alas, we humans could just apply it to Road
Transportation Networks. (Adding a route to a
congested road network does not always essentially
ease traffic. It may add to the traffic congestion.)
27
Raintree October-November-December 2010
ComIC STRIP
Here’s to raintree!
W e had no clue what to expect when we began
Raintree. Today, we are astonished and delighted
THE RAINTREE TEAm
Core Editorial Team – Jaya Joshi, Damayanti bhattacharya,
neha chaudhuri, Raja Mohanty, Rohit Manchanda, bhavini Pant
Contributors – Prof. M.V. Hariharan (retd.), Prof. Happy Ahluwalia,
Shyamala iyer, Shyama iyer, Shanta Sreeraman, Antariksh bothale,
Mohit Sharma, bhakti Joshi, Suman Rao, bodhi Vani, Ashwath
Kirthyvasan, Himanshu Dixit, Siddharth Shukla, Deepu Panicker,
Send in your articles, photographs, etchings, poetry, or anything else you would want portrayed in the magazine to pro@iitb.ac.in.
Published by the PubLic RELATiOnS OFFicE,
iiT bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076.
issue 9. October-november-December 2010
28
with the people it has touched and the acknowledgement
it has received. This comic strip by RAjARSHI RAy from
IDC will let our readers in on our journey from the begin-
ning to present. Have a bit of fun with us. Here’s to Raintree!
mAILING ADDRESS
Ashu Parwal, Tarun Reddy, bodas Tejas Prakash, Jyoti chede
Illustrators – Prof. Arun inamdar, Rajarshi Ray, Ankita Roy, Roma
Singh, Regan Raj, Akshata Prabhu, Akvil Sakhare, Piyush udai, Susmita
chakrabarty, Jim Mathew Kochitty
Photographers – c. P. Joglekar, Rangoli Garg, Venkat Damara
Design and Layout – Mustafa Saifee
copyright Statement This publication has been produced by the collaborative efforts of many authors.
The distribution and usage of every written and illustrated feature in this publication is governed by the
creative commons-Attribution-non-commercial 2.5 india license.